Arabesque (Turkish music)

Arabesk is a genre termed by Turkish musicologists for a regressive type of sound to come out of Turkey in the 1960's. Orhan Gencebay is generally considered the founder of the genre, though he disagrees with the usage of the term. Arabesque is similar to Skyladika [σκυλάδικα] music.

The genre involves a versatile collection of music inspired by Turkish folk music and Middle Eastern music. Arabesk is a working class musical style, so-called because of its predominantly Arab-influenced melodies. Traditionally a male dominated genre, its image has changed largely due to an injection of female singers. Plus, most critics attribute to these female singers the "dance" influx of sound into the genre, which is sometimes known as arabesk

"Arabesque-pop music" is traditional Middle Eastern music mixed in with modern music and other genres such as rock music and dance music.

Performers

Examples of Turkish male Arabesk singers are Orhan Gencebay, Müslüm Gürses and Ferdi Tayfur, who have die-hard followers, usually in conflict with each other. Young arabesk singers are such people as Emrah and Ozcan Deniz, though these singers have tried to move into mainstream Turkish pop without much success. In recent years through remixing his tracks into dance friendly club tracks Ibrahim Tatlises has gained popularity amongst the dance scene. Many music critics argue that the surge of Popstar Alaturka type competitions on Turkish TV has only added to the Arabesque-pop music industry's shallow image, and is cited as the reason why underground and reactionary music is becoming more popular. Popstar Alaturka

Laïkó was the pop music of Greece the 1950s and 1960s. Laïkó is similar to Turkish fantasy music.

Other Performers

• Ebru Gündeş

References

• Turkish Music and Artists
• Crossing The Bridge
• Buy at Tulumba

External links

• Turkish Music
• Popstar Alaturka
• Mahmut Abi featuring Sevda - Yesterday (Arabesque)