“Workers were called, but people came” is the refrain of the song ‘Gastarbeiter’ (Guest Workers) by Cem Karaca, in which he addresses the experiences of “guest workers” in the Federal Republic of Germany up until the 1980s.
Since the recruitment agreements at the beginning of the 1950s, many migrant workers have been living in the FRG. From the very beginning, music from their home countries and their own music-making has been a means of alleviating their homesickness and processing their everyday experiences (see FRG recruitment agreements, 1960-1968). This applies to migrant workers from all countries, but the musical development of Turkish migrant workers in the FRG is the most extensively documented.
Within the Turkish community, which largely originates from Anatolia, traditional Anatolian songs by the so-called Aşık (poet-singers) are sung. These songs deal with themes such as love, war, loss, separation, and isolation. When the economic boom in West Germany in the 1960s led to migrant workers staying longer, many of them began to process and recite their everyday experiences as “guest workers” in West Germany in poems and songs, just as the Aşık had once done. Initially in private circles, such as at weddings, the so-called Gurbetçi music (“people who live far away from their homeland”) emerged, which was later also presented to a wider audience. Among the best known of these are Ozan Ata Canani, Aşık Metin Türkoz, and Aşık Divane.
One of the most famous performers is the Turkish musician Cem Karaca. Due to political persecution, he found asylum in West Germany between 1979 and 1987. In Turkey, he is one of the most important representatives of Anatolian rock. His song “Gastarbeiter – Es kamen Menschen” (Guest Workers – People Came) received a lot of media attention in West Germany after he performed it on Alfred Biolek's TV show. The song describes the living conditions and experiences of a migrant worker. During the 1980s, Gurbetçi music was replaced by Arabesk music, which was very successful in Turkey and was also sold in Turkish migrant grocery stores in West Germany.
It was not until the early 1990s that Turkish-influenced music produced in Germany experienced a renaissance: through Turkish-language hip hop.
