Constructions of spaces of music in Istanbul: scuffling and intermingling sounds in a fragmented metropolis

• Autores: Volkan Aytar, Azer Keskin
• Localización: Géocarrefour: Revue de géographie de Lyon, ISSN 0035-113X, Vol. 78, Nº. 2, 2003 (Ejemplar dedicado a: La ville, le bruit et le son), págs. 147-157
• Idioma: francés
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• Resumen

  • Superimposed on a highly heterogeneous social texture further shaped by successive waves of in-migration, Istanbul's urban policy shifted from a state-centered to a more entrepreneurial approach since the mid-1980s. Concurrently, as the contestation of the urban space became more strident, the interplay of the facets of political, economic and cultural/symbolic change created interesting configurations and constellations. In a parallel development, since the urban identities in Istanbul turned more fragmented and hybrid from the mid-1980s, the cultural/symbolic struggle to define the urban space also translated into myriad particular ways in which the urban musical places are thought of, imagined, and experienced.

    Various musical styles stemming from (and frequently combining elements of both) rural and urban backdrops (such as Arabesk, Taverna, Fantezi, and Turkish pop), as well as numerous "engagé" forms of popular music (left-wing, far-nationalist, and Islamist variants of "Özgün Müzik"), and global and localized global forms (rock, blues, jazz, hip-hop, salsa, techno, and any combination of those thereof) blossomed, creating spaces, locations and establishments where these kinds of music could be heard, and turned Istanbul's streets into a symbolic battleground.

    This paper attempts to comprehend the parameters of this cultural-symbolic contestation from within a historical and spatial perspective, and connect those to a more general discussion on the links between sounds, social construction of space and the city identities. This way, we strive to move beyond the facile dichotomies of the traditional versus the modern; the local versus the global, essentializing notions usually deployed while studying the non-western societies such as Turkey. We argue for the existence of more fluid, complex and interconnected forms such as the localization of modernity (Smith and Bender, 2001) and the localization of the global (or "glocalization" à la R. Robertson). Also, we argue that the constructions of spaces of music need to be thought of in relation to the symbolic acts of inclusion and exclusion.