'Local Music from out There': Roman (Gypsy) Music as World Music in Turkey

This article discusses how Gypsyness (Romanness) and the notions of the Gypsy (Roman) community and locality are discursively articulated and reconstructed so as to constitute particular elements of 'world music' discourses in Turkey. The discussion attempts to trace and unbundle various elements of Romanness as they are articulated into world-music discourses. On the one hand Romanness symbolizes popular Roman images and their associated notions, but on the other it is used to constitute various market discourses of world music. Different discourses of Romanness are oftentimes overlapped and redefined or they replace each. The discussion looks at two of the most popular Roman musicians in Turkish world music market, Selim Sesler and Husnu Senlendirici, by using data obtained from ethnographic research that the author carried out in Istanbul.