For much of recent history, being a Kurdish language singer in Turkey has meant

taking your
life to another countries. Yet even the possibility of death didn t silence the
voices, and this powerful music continued to pour out of Turkey and the
Kurdish community in Iran, Iraq and Europe.
It s easy to draw parallels between Turkish Folk Pop and that other styles of late
twentieth-century urban folk pop music in Balkans such as Turbo Folk, Chalga wit
h which it shares all.
Turkish Rap is born out of a immigrant culture which use the language of the str
eet
to express opinions about street lifes of Germany and Turkey. It antagonises the
values of decent society and the cultural mainstream.
Arabesk, As the genre has found a global audience, the biggest stars have moved
to concert halls around the world.
Along the way, the protest music in turkey has lost a lot of its defiance (today
, the favoured music of modern turkish
youth is angry hip-hop and turkish pop - rock), but it s retained a lot of its pow
er.
Wind your way back in search of the roots of arabesk and you ll find yourself in t
he 60s.
At the end of World War I, Turkish Classical music was dominated by two main str
ands. The strictly regulated classical style, and the more popular styles.
The early decades of the last century were a time of great change and social uph
eaval in Turkey.
X, the grandmother of Turkish music spent most of her bitter-sweet, eighty-four
years walking on the wild side of life.
Even though she enjoyed a respect and love that still unites turks in the recent
era of murder and political chaos, official recognition was painfully slow in co
ming.
In 2001 he played several dates in the US, and although he did not record or per
form after that, he remained an icon. If
X is the blues of Turkey, then Y is the Bessie Smith of the genre.
Around this time, too, 78rpm records by the great Egyptian artists C and
Y were beginning to find huge popularity all across the Turkey and new styles of
city music were evolving.
To remain credible and relevant, what X desperately
needs now is a musical revolution, similar
to the one it experienced in the 1980s. Whether it
happens in France or Oran, the music is waiting
for a much-needed shot in the arm.
There s a fair amount of rai available on CD these days,
though many of the latest releases still appear first (and
in some cases only) on cassettes issued in France or
Algeria. If you want to track these down, get yourself
to Paris and scour the cassette shops near the Barbès
Rochechouart metro station, or the shops Bouarfa (
A live CD with some stunning improvisations, especially from
Nacer Eddine Ben Merabet. A deep listening experience, but
well worth the effort.
One of the greatest, if not THE greatest of all the roots rai
male vocalists, Cheikh Hamada made his first recording
in the 1920s and continued to record in Algeria, Paris and
Berlin until his death in 1968. He has left a rare and priceless
body of material which is one of the best examples of
modern pop-rai s ancestral roots.
The diva of folk rai (and mother of ten children), Cheikha
Remitti was still strutting about the stage, singing deeply
suggestive songs, well into her 70s. She is a nut with an
acquired taste but hypnotic once cracked.
The first French-Algerian rock star intelligently blends brilliantly
produced rock music (thanks to his pal Steve Hillage)
with chaabi and other North African popular music.
One of the classic Algerian songs in its definitive
performance that rocks as hard as anything a rai
singer or Algerian rocker has managed.
The father of chaabi in a glorious performance with
a band and chorus that seems to glitter.
Grim-faced Zahouani has a local hard man look and sings
in a suitably rasping no-nonsense style.