Copyright Consciousness: Musical Creativity and Intellectual Property in Turkey

by Dave Fossum

Overview

Copyright Consciousness explores the mutual influence of intellectual property law, musical creativity, and state cultural policy in Turkey's vibrant music industry. Drawing on ethnographic and archival data from the past five decades, this book is among the first in-depth ethnographies of music and the law. Adapting theories of legal consciousness and introducing them into ethnomusicology, it documents how a broad range of actors, from courts to composers, negotiate and constitute an emergent legality in music. It tracks how these actors make sense of and respond to the music copyright system's purported failures and perceived injustices, often integrating their experiences into larger narratives about Turkish society, the nature and value of musical creativity, and the histories of national genres, especially folk music.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780819501776
Publisher:	Wesleyan University Press
Publication date:	06/03/2025
Series:	Music / Culture
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	296
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

DAVE FOSSUM is an assistant professor in the School of Music, Dance, and Theatre at Arizona State University. His writing has been published in Ethnomusicology, Asian Music, and Ethnomusicology Forum.

Table of Contents

Author's Note • Acknowledgements • Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations •
Introduction • 1. Copyright Reform and Cultural Modernization • 2. Constituting Legality in the Music Sector • 3. Essentializing Creativity: Authorship and Anonymity • 4. Copyright and Traditionalism in State Broadcasting • 5. When Copyright Meets Folk Music • 6. Collectors, Copyright, "Kiziroğlu": Formal Law and Everyday Legality • Conclusion • Appendix • Notes • Index

Editorial Reviews

"Copyright Consciousness is detailed in every aspect, thoughtful, well-written, and fascinating with an entirely new and pathbreaking approach to its subject. I would recommend it to everyone who wants to understand Turkey's complex and contradictory musical world."—Martin Greve, author of Makamsız: Individualization of Traditional Music on the Eve of Kemalist Turkey

"Fossum demonstrates how the everyday life of copyright is a lens through which to understand the importance of creativity to human welfare and national identity. This is a story about Turkey, but its account of music-making communities (and their listeners) as productive of culture and justice resonates beyond national borders."—Jessica Silbey, author of Against Progress: Intellectual Property and Fundamental Values in the Internet Age

From the Publisher