An anthropological study of rembetiko music culture in Istanbul at the end of the first decade of the 2000s

This study presents an anthropological review of Rembetiko music culture in Istanbul. The main objective is to redefine Rembetiko as a music culture and as music in culture and to reveal and interpret the meanings and representations of Rembetiko within the contemporary music scene in Istanbul. The fieldwork study includes the weekly performances and occasional concerts of the contemporary Rembetiko bands, one-time gigs within cultural projects and Baklahorani Carnival in Istanbul, during March 2010 - September 2011. The methodology contains participant observation and in-depth interviews with the audience members and the current Rembetiko musicians. This thesis attempts to analyze Rembetiko music culture by utilizing the contemporary socio-musicological concepts of our contemporary era, as well as to interpret it within a contemporary anthropological framework. Therefore, it asks how and why this music culture was revived in Istanbul at the end of the first decade of 2000s. This study will apply the concepts of symbolic and interpretative anthropology to the contemporary Rembetiko music culture. The relationship between migration and music, as well as the musical framework of Rembetiko are also analyzed. The main findings put forth that not only the descendants of the population exchange, but everyone who feels a sense of either intellectual or emotional connectedness can participate in this culture. Thus, it is argued that musicians and the audience create a particular music-based communitas. In addition, a typology of Rembetiko listeners is modeled and the current situation of Rembetiko musicians and the different motivations of listeners are also exposed.