I wrote about a chilling criminal case against one of Turkey’s most important musicians: Mabel Matiz. He and the girl group Manifest both face prison time over lyrics and dance moves. It’s all part of a new wave of repression in the name of “family values” www.balcanicaucaso.org/eng/Areas/Tu...

The latest single by Mabel Matiz, Turkey’s preeminent pop singer and songwriter, will likely be banned after a complaint by the Ministry of Family and Social Services about it being a “threat to the public order” for erotic song lyrics. Yes, lyrics are now cause for censorship.

Amidst all the bad news here & in the world it's been hard to find a time to share the good, but I wanted say that I'm thrilled to have started as an assistant professor in the Cultural Studies program (Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences) at Sabancı University in Istanbul!

Bad Bunny’nin son albümü bize gösteriyor ki Türkiye gibi coğrafyaların müziklerinin global piyasada nasıl yer bulduğunu önemseyen herkes onun örneğini dikkate almalı. Kendi yerel kültürü ve dilinden hiç taviz vermeden dünyaca ünlü oldu çünkü. 🧵

I wrote about women in rock music from Turkey to the US and how successive generations have been ignored or forgotten only later to be remembered and reclaimed. From Fanny to Eroğlu Kızlar Orkestrası, Liz Phair to Şebnem Ferah, you read the essay here: sheermag.substack.com/p/power-recl...

Listemin sonuna geldik. 2024’ün en iyi 3 albümünü açıkladığım yazı yayında!

Müzik eleştirmeni @kenansharpe.bsky.social, 2024’ün en iyi yerli albümlerini derledi. Listenin 8'den 4'e geri saydığımız ikinci bölümü yayında: "Türkçe müziğinin dünyadaki yeri" #ezhel #paptircem #mavi #muganni #emirtaha velvele.net/2024/12/23/y...

Bu senenin en iyi şarkılarını yazdım, yerli sahnenin 2024'teki trendlerini özetledim. Şimdi de @velvele.net için yılın en iyi albümlerini listeliyorum. Bugün itibariyle geri sayım başladı, 13’ten 9'a kadarki ilk bölüm yayında! velvele.net/2024/12/22/y...

some fabulous pop here, never mind if you, like me, don't understand the lyrics, feel those big emotions

Yıl sonu en iyi albümler listemi paylaşmadan önce yerli pop, rap ve rock sahnesindeki genel trendler üzerine yazdım. Gerçekten farklı bir şey yapmaya çalıştım bu yazıda. Tek dileğim, 2024’teki müzik hayatımızla ilgili bir tartışma zemini sunması...

Send us your paper proposals on James Baldwin's Istanbul! I'm happy to be a co-convener of this year's Keyman Modern Turkish Studies conference alongside İpek Kocaömer Yosmaoğlu. We're looking forward to a great conference in Istanbul with the support of Sabancı University.

kenan’s playlist last year was fantastic. now 2024 edition is out: 🥳

BEST OF TURKISH MUSIC 2024 🧵 The year is nearly over. The music mags gave their top picks, Spotify got unwrapped, & now it's time for our list of music from Turkey. Here are my mini-reviews & a playlist of my 50+ favorite songs... I saw last year's list being shared here, so here's the new one! 🧵

Every December for 5 years now I have made a massive end-of-the-year playlist and accompanying Twitter thread of the best songs to come out of Turkey. I think it's important to highlight the incredible creativity coming out of the country. You can read it here: en.velvele.net/2023/12/11/b...

Check out the new Spotify playlist from the best commentator on Turkish music out there, @kenansharpe.bsky.social So far I'm loving the new Jakuzi single. open.spotify.com/playlist/4xc...

Excited for this round table discussion on Higher Ed in Turkey in the latest issue of IJMES menasky

Today's the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Turkey. On the one side, you have crowds chanting Erdoğan's name & rejecting all the republic (should have) stood for. On the other, people sharing utterly apolitical messages with Atatürk's photo as if anything from the republic remains under the AKP

The more I think about Turkey’s three days of “national mourning” the more frustrated I get. Let me get this right: do a big empty symbolic gesture for Palestine but make not one concrete action against Israel or to stop the massive flow of money to and from Turkey. But ban music and theater, yes…

Çünkü müzik, tiyatro, sanat susturulunca savaş bitiyor…

For anyone who missed the debacle, I wrote about the cancellation of the annual Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival and what it means for Turkey's film industry under increasingly absurd censorship. www.balcanicaucaso.org/eng/Areas/Tu...