Copyright Consciousness

How copyright shapes the nature, value, and meaning of musical creativity

Copyright Consciousness explores the mutual influence of intellectual property law, musical creativity, and state cultural policy in Turkey's vibrant music industry. Drawing on ethnographic and archival data from the past five decades, this book is among the first in-depth ethnographies of music and the law. Adapting theories of legal consciousness and introducing them into ethnomusicology, it documents how a broad range of actors, from courts to composers, negotiate and constitute an emergent legality in music. It tracks how these actors make sense of and respond to the music copyright system's purported failures and perceived injustices, often integrating their experiences into larger narratives about Turkish society, the nature and value of musical creativity, and the histories of national genres, especially folk music.