Opening up the Cracks: Street Music and Participation (A European Commentary)

Abstract

This chapter discusses youth political participation through the study of a band of young Kurdish musicians performing ethnic music in the streets of Eskişehir, a university town in Turkey. These street musicians play local music from the various ethnic groups in Turkey (in Turkish, Kurdish, Armenian, Arabic and Persian); in other words, folk music, but with a musical reinterpretation and a symbolic political meaning. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this study argues that these young musicians performing in the streets are struggling for a place in the public space, as young, Kurdish and musicians. Regarding the political aspect of their participation, their most apparent claim is to freely express oppressed ethnic identities in the public space, starting from their own. The Kurdish identity has been stigmatised for so long that any act publicly revealing a Kurdish identity may be perceived, in public, as political, if not criminal. However, in this particular case, performing ethnic music – not only any songs in Kurdish but a particular genre of music associated with a set of political values and ideas such as multiculturalism – is an artistic choice but a political one too. Besides, their performance place, the streets, as unstructured and informal settings, and how these young musicians choose to deal with the challenges of playing in the streets, also shape their style of participation. With their performance in the streets, they open space for themselves in the city, physically and discursively. In order to make sense of their participation, this study focuses on these young street musicians’ ‘tactics’ for being present in the streets, but also on historical and theoretical elements to understand the politicisation of ethnic music and the political aspects of the streets.

Citation

Osmanoğlu, B., Lüküslü, D. and Zekiroğlu, C. (2022), "Opening up the Cracks: Street Music and Participation (A European Commentary)", McMahon, G., Rowley, H. and Batsleer, J. (Ed.) Reshaping Youth Participation: Manchester in a European Gaze, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 191-200. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80043-358-820221012