Background (1930s-1960s) Anatolian rock has a long history that dates back to the founding of the
Turkish Republic decades ago.
Atatürk pushed extensive changes to build a national form of music from the early 1930s forward. He believed that music should be based on national and modern foundations and musicians should work on Turkish melodies and make them polyphonic according to the rules of Western harmonic music. As a result,
Anatolian folk music began to spread and people began to listen to Anatolian folk tunes instead of
Ottoman music. In the 1960s,
Rock and roll began to be played and rock groups such as
the Beatles,
the Rolling Stones,
Led Zeppelin,
Yes,
Status Quo and
Omega became popular especially in
Istanbul. It began to spread and became popular among the elite youth of the city. In Istanbul, high school and university students began forming their own bands and performing covers of rock'n'roll and twist music in 1957. Students who would become famous singers later, such as
Barış Manço from
Galatasaray High School and
Erkin Koray from
German High School, performed at an amateur concert they had organized, which is known as the first rock'n roll concert of Turkey. Turkish singers such as
Erol Büyükburç began to release English-language
cover versions of American songs, as well as their own songs.
Golden age of Anatolian rock and Turkish psychedelic rock (1960s-1980s) From 1957, Turkish radio stations played
surf rock by
the Tornados and
the Ventures, and films with Elvis Presley and Bill Haley were shown in Turkish cinemas. This inspired musicians like
Erkin Koray to start already in 1957 with cover versions of rock’n’roll tunes, using the new electric guitar. By the early 1960s, Turkish groups began to perform instrumentals, such as those by
the Shadows and the Ventures. Although often locally popular performers, these Turkish groups were rarely recorded. The first original Turkish-language pop song was "Ayrılanlar İçin", released in 1964 by
Timur Selçuk. Other singers also emerged, including
Barış Manço, who first recorded in the early 1960s before later spearheading the growth of Turkish rock music in the 1970s with albums such as
2023 (1975) and become "the father of Anatolian Rock". At the same time, Turkish society began to undergo significant cultural changes, including the growth of
multi-party democracy. The domestic rock music scene in Turkey expanded rapidly in the mid- and late 1960s. In 1963, guitarist Erkin Koray published "One September Night" (
Bir Eylül Akşamı) which is regarded as the first rock'n roll song in the Turkish language and opened a new era, the Turkish
psychedelic rock. From 1968 to about 1975, psychedelic rock became popular in Turkey, notably the work of Koray, regarded as a "hugely influential figure on the Istanbul music scene". to encourage the development of new songs in Turkish blending folk tunes and Western style music. This helped identify a new generation of musicians, including the groups
Mavi Işıklar,
Silüetler, and musicians
Cem Karaca,
Edip Akbayram,
Selçuk Alagöz, and his sister
Rana Alagöz. After the coup, rock musicians were banned from performing, many artists had to flee abroad such as
Cem Karaca and some were imprisoned.
Era of Turkish rock (After 1990s) As other rock genres gained popularity in Turkey, Anatolian rock also began to diversify and the
Turkish rock that came out of this period, was far from its traditional Anatolian-style roots and has no connection with folk music. In later decades, there has been a growth of Turkish rock bands such as
Duman,
Mor ve Ötesi,
Gece Yolcuları,
Almora,
Kurban,
Kargo,
Vega,
Çilekeş,
Redd,
Gripin and
maNga, the latter having won the "Best Rock Band" award in almost all polls in 2005. Besides, due to the
Turkish migration to Germany, several Turkish-rooted bands also evolved in Germany. In the 1980s as alternative groups: (from 1981 on, at the beginning named Fahrstuhl) and
the Trial (from 1985 on). The influences acting upon all these bands fall into a wide range of genres, from the
Seattle Sound to
heavy or
doom metal and
rapcore. Hence, Anatolian rock refers to a fusion of a wide selection of western rock subgenres with either a traditional Turkish sound or even rock music with Turkish lyrics. Such cultural fusion led the way for rock music to develop in Turkey. By the end of the 1980s, several metal groups formed in Turkey such as
Mezarkabul (Pentagram). on
Festival des Vieilles Charrues in 2018.
2010s In late 2010s, some rock musicians and bands appeared that harmonize folk tunes with rock, such as singer
Gaye Su Akyol, and bands like
Palmiyeler,
Ayyuka,
Makas, Dutch Anatolian rock band
Altın Gün and UK based Anatolian rock band Kit Sebastian. In 2014, the
Anatolian Rock Revival Project started with the vision of preserving the culture of Anatolian rock and transferring it to future generations.
Nemrud blends the rich tradition of Anatolian rock with the complexity of Western progressive rock, creating a unique sound. ==See also==