Place Attachment in Songs Mentioning Ankara: A Prevailing Cliché of Turkish Pop Music

Abstract

This study aims to understand how place attachment towards Ankara is considered in Turkish pop music songs. In order to determine which pop music songs mention Ankara, certain restrictions were applied as part of the sampling stage of the study. The data set was comprised of thirty songs, which were analyzed according to the inductive thematic analysis method. The obtained data was evaluated within the scope of place attachment theory. Repetitive content and patterns showed that nine themes were inclusive across the dataset. In order of prevalence, these themes were entitlement, sadness, distance, loneliness, snow and rain, night, gloom, cold, drunkenness, and longing for the sea. Each song comprises and average of 4.3 themes and demonstrates clear thematic similarities between the songs. The common themes that dominate the majority of Turkish pop songs about Ankara are examples of negative place attachment. The negative place attachment towards Ankara among Turkish pop music songs is discussed with consideration of Istanbul-based culture industry, and the reproduction of cliché based on the repetition of common themes about Ankara. The study is expected to contribute to the literature gap on urban culture studies and highlight the topic of attachment-music interaction in Turkey. Depending on qualitative research design, the study is limited in terms of the subjective interpretation of results and underrepresentation within the field of research.

Keywords

• place attachment
• pop music
• place identity
• sociology of music
• ankara