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55 albums · 1970–2017

Music of Turkey, from Zeki Müren and Anadolu rock to arabesk, Sezen Aksu, Tarkan and today

· 2 min read · by 1001 Albums

Tarkan singing at the microphone on a stage in Istanbul under blue light, his band behind him
Sezen Aksu singing with her band on an open-air stage, the hands of the crowd in front of herA bağlama maker in a flat cap playing a bağlama in his workshop, more of the instruments hanging on the wall
Tarkan on stage in Istanbul in 2010. Photo: Scott Dexter, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · Sezen Aksu in concert at Istanbul Technical University in 2013. Photo: Lubunya, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · A bağlama maker plays an instrument he has repaired in his workshop, 2023. Photo: Yagznl, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Turkey's popular music has the sanat singers at its start, Zeki Müren above all, with Aşık Veysel and Neşet Ertaş on the bağlama beside him, then the Anadolu rock of Erkin Koray's Elektronik Türküler, Barış Manço, Cem Karaca and Selda Bağcan, the arabesk of Orhan Gencebay, Müslüm Gürses and İbrahim Tatlıses, Ajda Pekkan, Sezen Aksu and Zülfü Livaneli, Tarkan's Ölürüm Sana for the world, the rock of Mor ve Ötesi, Duman and Baba Zula, the rap of Ceza and Ezhel, Mercan Dede's electronics, İlhan Erşahin's Istanbul Sessions at the jazz end, Gaye Su Akyol and Mabel Matiz today, and Fazıl Say's Istanbul Symphony for a nod to the concert hall. The list has 55 records from 1970 to 2017, one or two by each of the names above and only a small part of what they made; Üç Hürel's Hürel Arşivi, Edip Akbayram's records of the seventies and Athena's Holigan are on Deezer only as later collections or not at all, and the Ottoman classical makam tradition beyond a nod, the aşık tradition beyond Veysel, each region's own folk music and the Kurdish-language song would each need a list of their own. About 44 hours of music, 5 days of a few records each.

By genre

World 44%Rock 18%Pop 11%Other 27%
  • World 44%
  • Rock 18%
  • Pop 11%
  • Other 27%

The genres named most: turkish, pop, folk, anadolu rock, rock, arabesk.

The colours of the covers

A stripe for each cover, in the colour Tidal picks from it, sorted by hue; the greys at the end.

Where the music comes from

Music from 1 country: Turkey 55. The deeper the colour, the more albums: one, two to four, five to nine, ten and more.

The 1970s

The 1980s

The 1990s

The 2000s

The 2010s

More lists

Lists of Countries first, then others; all of them on the blog. The blog.