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71. In a later period, Victoria Holbrook makes a somewhat similar point in relation to modern Turkish readings of Şeyh Galib’s 1782 mystic romance Hüsn ü aşk (Beauty and love). There are multiple ironies at play here, as Holbrook skillfully notes. Literary modernism has generally validated the aesthetic as an autonomous domain, yet Turkish modernists found Ottoman lyric and mystical poetry lacking in realism and thus lacking an organic connection to social and political process. It took sustained and systematic efforts, in other words, to banish complex and playful works like Hüsn ü aşk from the realm of the modern or the protomodern in Turkish literary study.

This section suggests an alternative framework within which their broad popularity and significance might more readily be understood. Genres familiar to urban audiences in Turkey today include what I refer to here as “Turkish art music” (“Türk sanat müziği” or “sanat musikisi”),30 “Turkish folk music” (“Türk halk müziği”), and various kinds of popular music ( fasıl, arabesk, aranjman, Anadolu rock, pop). Problematic though these genre distinctions are, for reasons that will become clear, some preliminary characterization may be useful for readers unfamiliar with Turkish music.

Problematic though these genre distinctions are, for reasons that will become clear, some preliminary characterization may be useful for readers unfamiliar with Turkish music. “Turkish art music” is generally understood as a monophonic vocal and 29. At various times the voices of Zeki Müren, Orhan Gencebay, Sezen Aksu, and certainly Münir Nurettin Selçuk have been popular in nearby Balkan, Middle Eastern, and Central Asian countries. They have also taken their place in the migrant soundscapes of western European cities: Berlin, Paris, Stockholm, and London in particular.