Turkey

Modern music in Turkey draws on Ottoman classical music, regional folk traditions, the aşık poet-singer lineage, religious repertories, and musical cultures in Anatolia and neighboring regions. During the twentieth century these traditions interacted with radio, records, migration, European pop, rock, and later hip-hop and electronic production.

Anatolian rock is a fusion that emerged in the 1960s by combining Turkish folk melodies, bağlama, makam-based phrasing, and regional rhythms with psychedelic, progressive, and electric rock. Barış Manço, Cem Karaca, Erkin Koray, and Moğollar are among its foundational artists.

Arabesque is an emotionally intense popular style associated with themes of longing, hardship, and displacement. It grew alongside rapid rural-to-urban migration and combines Turkish folk and art-music elements with orchestral and Middle Eastern influences. Orhan Gencebay and Müslüm Gürses are two of its defining figures.

Ajda Pekkan helped establish modern Turkish pop, while Sezen Aksu became its most influential singer-songwriter and mentor. Tarkan carried Turkish-language pop to a large international audience in the 1990s, and Sertab Erener won Turkey's first Eurovision Song Contest in 2003.

Turkish hip-hop developed through both the Turkish diaspora in Germany and local scenes in Turkey. By the late 1990s and 2000s, artists such as Ceza brought Turkish-language rap into the mainstream. Streaming-era performers including Ezhel later blended rap with reggae, trap, and Anatolian melodic influences.

Last reviewed: 2026-07