Berlin–Frankfurt–Istanbul

Abstract

This article explores how a focus on the movement of people, especially between countries, might provide new perspectives on music scenes. After a brief case study of a rap song and summary of the origins of Turkish hip-hop, the article presents a series of vignettes from ethnographic fieldwork with Turkish hip-hoppers and their contacts in Istanbul and Stockholm, in which the theme of movement, and the enduring transnational connections it creates, are highlighted. The article then turns to a discussion of recent theorizing on music scenes, addressing the ways in which the local, translocal and virtual levels of the Turkish hip-hop scene complexly interact with each other. Finally, it suggests that Turkish hip-hop may be best understood as a transnational community of affect in which not only attachment to specific places, but also movement itself between them, are crucial to a sense of belonging for those who are able to participate in these movements.