The punks, the web, local concerns and global appeal: Cultural hybridity in Turkish hardcore punk

Abstract

Turkish hardcore punk rock can easily be dismissed as an example of cultural imperialism due to heavy borrowing from the West. However, mapping the cultural flow of music globally is insufficient. Though the global flow of culture (including music) is characterised by an imbalance which favours the West, we prefer viewing cultural flows as ‘complex patterns of cross-fertilisation and cultural hybridity’ where semiotic resources from the local and the West produce new packages of semiotic meanings. This article outlines how punks are able to harness the power of western hardcore punk and western technology such as the Internet to express real concern about Turkey for Turkish and international fans. Band members and fans of two hardcore bands are interviewed and lyrics and visuals of a typical video is analysed. This research reveals how bands use western resources to express opinions and views about life in Turkey for a local and international audience. In this sense, Turkish punk is not a case of cultural imperialism, but a cultural hybrid. Through internationalising punk using technology and a DIY approach common in punk, punk thrives in a place which is inhospitable to most things alternative, different and not easily controlled