Firstly, I have to admit, I am not a music expert. I might miss some points, and there might be critics about my views by professionals.
As in any community, Turkmen children born in the 1980s, have also grown up listening to unique regional songs. The memories are shaped by that art. 1980s various genres of Turkmen music were rising, and new styles were becoming popular.
Back then on TV and radio, we often used to listen to music recorded even earlier, along with the new ones. As children, we wouldn’t always distinguish which song was new, and which was older. We listened to them all. Perhaps then overall content accumulated in 50 years would be equivalent to today’s 1-year content production. That’s why on TV and radio the musical content would circulate over and over. In those days there were no alternative mass media technologies, internet platforms, digital media tools, etc.
If I have to list down quickly the names of the singers from those years, I can recall Ovezgeldi Tekayev, Bally Hajiyev, Nuryagdi Tokgayev, Annaberdi Atdanov, Babamyrat Hamdamov, Gulshirin Alyjanova, Annagul Gurdova, Atageldi Garyagdiyev, Gurban Gummanov, Berdiyeva sisters. Surely there were more. As a child, it was challenging to remember the names of all the singers. We remember these names not because we liked them, but because we didn’t have any choice. We had to listen to what adults were listening to.
So Turkmen Rock music was also having its prospering years. Musical groups “Gunesh”, “Dessan”, “Arzuw”, “Alemgoshar”, and vocalists Shamammet Bashimov, and Akmuhammet Saparov were among the popular rock performers.
In the late 1990s, however, the music flavor in the Turkmen community experienced unexpected change. Nurmuhammet Meredov, alias “Kasoy”, appeared in public with his unique vocal performance and became viral within a few months. He managed to attract the attention of youth with his songs imitating Indian and Oriental styles. Although there were many popular singers like Bayram Taganov, Enesh Rejepova, Dovran Saparov, and Annush Myratdurdiyev in the 1990s, it felt like there were no other singers except “Kasoy”. And there grew a generation that was apart from rock music and even didn’t know what it was.
Then Turkish Arabesque and Pop music entered the Turkmen market. Turkmen Rock music had started fading away. In addition to this rock music industry in Turkmenistan was also affected by the unstable economic conditions of the 1990s after the post-Soviet transformation. The Turkmen Rock market has started to shrink, and rock artists lost their sources of income.
I am not in the right to judge anyone’s flavors and preferences. Every musical genre has its fans. But in my opinion, if one listens to arabesque and/or Indian-style music too much, it leads the psychological condition of the audience to pessimism. (Once again, it is my opinion).
Therefore, as per my observation, people in the 1990s tended to listen to more oriental arabesque Indian-style songs more, because of the socio-psychological conditions of that period. Allow me to note that, I am not against oriental music. That is my favorite genre. I even do karaoke of the songs from this genre.
Rock music has its flavor and unique fans. Rock music has an inspiring rhythm and heart-beating dynamics. Rock fans are very loyal. Rock groups can maintain their fans even for 50 years.
I see you are asking why I wrote this article. Don’t worry, I have a purpose. I have a piece of news that I am going to share in the upcoming days.
Please, stay tuned!
Merdan Atayev
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