The Resurrection of "Folk Music" among Alevi Immigrants from Turkey in Germany

There is a sizeable Alevi religious minority among the predominantly Sunni Muslim immigrants from Turkey in Germany.  One of the key entertainment activities for the members of Alevi minority has been attending at the bars that feature "folk music" from Turkey, which are also known as türkü bars. Türkü has been used as a generic term used to refer to the folk tunes in Turkey. Based on the analysis of performance settings of the Alevi musicians and ethnographic research in Germany and Istanbul, especially in türkü bars, I argue that there is a sizeable culture industry responsible for resurrecting, exploiting and marketing the new iteration of folk music to their audiences in both Germany and Turkey. In this presentation, I lay out at the process of creation and maintenance of a new transnational socio-cultural field by the musicians, producers, artists, and other culture entrepreneurs.