The Discourse of the 14 May 2023 Election Songs in Turkey: The Case of the Nation Alliance and the People’s Alliance

Year 2025, Volume: 9 Issue: 1, 158 - 191, 30.06.2025

S. Yankı Özcan

https://doi.org/10.33906/musicologist.1328323

Abstract

This article explores the role of music as a political communication strategy in the presidential and parliamentary elections in Turkey, 14 May 2023. It acknowledges the lack of existing research analyzing the discourse of election songs in these elections and aims to fill that gap. Using a qualitative research approach and Van Dijk's critical discourse analysis framework, the study focuses on songs from the Republican People's Party, the Good Party, and the Justice and Development Party within the Nation Alliance and the People's Alliance. Music, as used in films and advertising, has the power to evoke emotions and influence voters on an emotional level. I argue that if music can educate, it can also mobilize people to support political movements to a level beyond intellectual and emotional empathy. The research methodology involves collecting data from YouTube by listening to election campaign songs, while discourse analysis is applied to examine the ideological and social implications of the discourse. My aim is to explicate how political parties convey their campaigns and construct their identities through songs. In terms of thematic analysis, the names and content of the songs are consistent. There is no use of complex words or complex syntax. While the Justice and Development Party tried to reach voters with different musical tastes by using different melodies and tempos in its election songs, the Nation Alliance preferred to reach voters by way of a melancholic tone and a harmony of medium-fast and fast tempos.

Keywords

Election songs , van Dijk , critical discourse analysis , propaganda , political communication

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