Musical trends of Turkish popular music between 2007-2017

Abstract

Extended Abstract The first two decades of the twenty-first century were a period in which the music industry and popular music trends underwent significant changes. At the beginning of these stand the spread of broadband Internet technology and the emergence of new mass media. However technological innovations were not limited to the Internet; the means of music production, promotion and consumption tools have also changed drastically. One of the most important events is widespread of use of these production and promotion tools. For instance, the use of personal computers with increased processing power has become available and some hardware, which was quite expensive in the past, has begun to be simulated through software technology. Thus, as in many other fields, new production activities have emerged in the field of popular music. This situation may have led to the formation of some major trends. This study aims to identify these trends in the Turkish popular music scale. This study is based on a sample size of 400 Turkish popular music songs produced between 2007 and 2017. The most important inclusion criteria in determining the sample is popularity. We consider the songs in the TOP Lists provided by MÜ-YAP and prepared by MÜ-YAP in a total of 10 categories as the population of the research, since these lists show the most consumed songs in different media and different formats (CD sales, online rentals, downloads, etc.). It consists of all the songs on the TOP Charts in 10 years. Accordingly, the universe of the project consists of 1542 units in different MÜ-YAP TOP Lists. The songs were analyzed with regard to their basic musical elements such as rhythmic patterns, scales, modes, makams, tempo, tonality, etc. Our aim is to reach the frequencies of these elements through such an analysis and to appoint which trends have shaped the Turkish popular songs in these years. The results of the analyses are given under 19 subtitles. Some ratios in the frequency tables given in these subtitles are remarkable. For example, the Phrygian is the most frequently used mode, with 40% of all modal songs; the descending melodic contour is dominant in 64% of the songs; 92% of the tonic chords are minor triads; Hicâz has been the most common makam; no modulation was found in 91% of the songs; within 10 years, the average length of the songs decreased from 251 seconds to 226. As a conclusion it can be stated that Turkish popular music trends have two sources: local musical materials and global/industrial effects. Musical elements such as rhythmic patterns, modes or makams mostly come from the local musical culture. We also observed that such local reflections are gathered under 4 categories: modes/makams, vocal techniques and ornaments, instruments and instrumental techniques and rhythmic patterns. On the other hand, global effects have often been found to be effective on the formal structures of the songs. Some industrial standards of mixing and mastering such as dynamic ranges, loudness levels, etc. have also been observed as global effects. © 2021, Fikri Soysal. All rights reserved.