(b Samsun, Aug 1944). Turkish popular musician. Gencebay is widely credited as the inventor of arabesk, a popular genre which has dominated the Turkish recording industry since the mid-1970s and which has been widely condemned by the Turkish nationalist intelligentsia (see Turkey, §V, 3). As a child, he received an early training in the religious repertory and Western art music from his family circle. He studied the reformed rural music genre at local music societies, played guitar in a rock band while at lycée and learnt the popular dance band hits of the day as a saxophonist during military service at an officers' club in Istanbul. In 1967 he was recruited to the Istanbul radio station but resigned a year later to continue his work in the popular market as a singer and film star, in 1973 managing his own recording company, Kervan. His early work, characterized by his first Columbia recording of 1968, Bir teselli ver (‘Console Me’), was an eclectic mix of Western rock, Turkish art and folk music and Egyptian popular dance styles, initially much inspired by his mentor, Ahmet Sezgin. The lyrics of the songs are typical of the arabesk repertory as a whole, dealing with the fated love of the virtuous poor man. While his songs follow the broad outlines of urban art music şarkı form (see Turkey, §IV, 4), Gencebay composes at the bağlama (the rural long-necked plucked lute) and combines modal structures in ways which are incompatible with art music theory, but demonstrate considerable wit and sophistication. (M. Özbek, Popüler kültür ve Orhan Gencebay arabeski, Istanbul, 1991, 2/1994)
MARTIN STOKES