Author’ s Name: Rana SAGİROGLU
Title: ‘A Product of Popular Culture: EMO Culture in Turkey’
Code: 3544
SELICUP 2010
ABSTRACT
A PRODUCT OF POPULAR CULTURE: EMO CULTURE IN TURKEY
Rana SAGİROGLU*
In this rapidly changing world, cultural varieties are inevitable for all the societies for the
sake of being “modern”. If one catches modernity, then s/he keeps abreast of the needs of the
contemporary world. In order to be modern, contemporary people must understand their
culture’s needs. This impels the individuals to take part in widespread activities to be accepted
and respected by the most of the society. Now, these activities become “popular” because of
their being very common and temporal. That is, people tend to be a part of popular culture.
One of the most effective samples of popular culture is “EMO”s in Turkey, a group of
young people that consitutes a kind of “sub-culture” in Turkish culture. The word “EMO” is
short for “emotion”, thus summarizing the philosophy of EMOs. It is possible to say that
being an EMO is a mood of loneliness, melancholy and unhappines, and urges these young
people to reflect their emotional bitterness. This urgency makes EMOs to be marginal and
eye-catching with their appearance. They comb their hair in a style that one of the eyes should
be covered. They have many piercings on their faces. They say that the more piercings they
have on their face, the more “cool” they are.( Being “cool” is also their way of living.) The
expression on their face is an attempt to reproduce the “loser” look. They tattoo the unseen
parts of their bodies and they never say “dövme” (Turkish for “tattoo”). Also, EMOs give
importance to wearing make-up and choose dark colors, especially for their eyes. EMOs wear
chequered trousers, T-shirts and bags mostly in black and purple. The EMOs’ music style is
something in between metal and punk. This heavy musical manner symbolizes their rebellious
nature. Moreover, they have created a different language which is a kind of imitation of
Turkish, but it has unusual aspects. Their writing and speaking style, being out of rules as a
rule and their exclamations in daily speech are worth analyzing in this study.(e.g. : They say
“bebehem”, the original version of the word is “bebeğim” in Turkish, meaning “my baby” ).
Their way of using(or destroying) the language can be regarded as a defence of minorities
fighting for identity.
EMOs and their culture is undoubtely a manifestation of “popular culture” effected by
media and technology, especially by the Internet. Their different lifestyle, which non-standard
language varieties( which can be called a sub-language), is very popular in Turkey and and
may indeed be seen as an example of community-building in response to a globalized world.
Key Words: popular culture, Turkey, EMOs, sub-culture, sub-language.
Rana Sagiroglu, Research Asst./ English Language and Literature Dept., Faculty of Letters,
Selcuk University, Konya, Turkey.
BIO-NOTICE
Rana SAGİROGLU
I was born in İzmir, the west coast of Turkey, in 30th October, 1987. I had my primary and
high school education in İzmir. I graduated from Selcuk University/ Faculty of Letters/
Department of English Language and Literature in 2009. I am an MA student and also
working as a research assistant in Selcuk University/ Faculty of Letters/ Department of
English Language and Literature. I have been living in Konya for 5 years. I am very fond of
literature and language since my childhood. I am interested in literary criticism, especially in
Turkish and English Literature. Also, I try hard to learn a second language, French and I have
been planning to attend a Spanish course in summer. I am an energetic, keen on working and
searching, decisive and persuasive person. I do whatever i can for the sake of scientific
studies.