Melodic, harmonic and rhythmic structure in Anatolian rock: 1965-1975

When Anatolian rock first emerged in Turkey in sixties, it also contributed to the formation of an authentic musical style. This new musical style is a fusion of American Rock n Roll and Anatolian makam music. Generally modal structures such as major, minor and phrygian are very similar to makam music in terms of melodic lines and alterations. Artists use particular rhythmic patterns. The influence of folk songs and traditional poetry over lyrics forms these rhythmic patterns in seven, eight and eleven-syllable structure. As a result, original lyrics have the same syllabic structure. Altough these modalities share the same harmonic concepts, triads, harmonic successions and some cadences in the west, they differ from these structures in terms of chord choices and harmonic function. In major, ussage of I, IV and V chords are very similar to Blues and Rock n Roll. But there is not any fixed chord progression. In minor, V-i and bVII-i cadences are used by different artists. Also in phrygian -a very widely used modal structure- bII-i and bVII-i cadences give the characteristic sound of Anatolian Rock.