Turkish Cassette Special 2

Even though they constituted a mass media market from the 1970s to around 2000, Turkish music cassettes now occupy a niche position in music history and the music market. This is evident from the fact that a significant portion of the cassette output is still not available online, and important archival databases, like Discogs, provide little information on it.

Why is that? Turkish music on cassettes has ended up in a kind of media shadow zone due to various mechanisms of exclusion and marginalization: Downgraded as “Arabesque minibus music” for poorer classes and migrants – both within Turkey and abroad – it has been subject to what can be considered a classist treatment. This seems to have so far prevented serious (academic) engagement with the medium and the music, even though numerous stars of various musical styles have released cassettes, and often cassettes only.
In addition, gatekeepers in Western media, markets, and discourse have for a long time generally blocked Turkish music, including that on cassette, no matter how successful it was.
As a result, entire strands of musical development are difficult to grasp from a musicological perspective because they are poorly archived and therefore difficult to access. Independent Turkish diaspora music developments that mainly took place on cassette, such as disco folk, Anadolu synth, Anadolu boogie, Gurbet Şarkıları, or especially Kurdish music, are difficult to research and rarely heard.

This special mix focuses on these musical styles that are in danger of sinking into the abyss of media oblivion.

Thanks to Oliver Zöllner, Hochschule der Medien Stuttgart/Horads 86.6 for the cooperation and support.

https://www.horads.de/webplayer/

More information: https://www.horads.de/programm/sendeplan/

Listen also to the previous Golden Doodle Mixtape shows on the subject:
https://www.fluctuating-images.de/golden-mixtape-doodle-summer-song-3-cassette-special-feat-late-80s-anadolu-synth/