Everyone shines with their own star

Would we have ever imagined that we would embrace popular culture like this?

That we would wake up to the light of a star on an artificial, cold, and even frozen morning... That we would listen to concert recordings over and over again and run back to the 90s...

The 90s are the childhood or youth of some of us, or perhaps the era when popular culture created its deities. How did popular culture, which we approached so critically, bring us together today—and not just those who can travel back to the 90s, but today's youth, perhaps three generations.

The "mega star" label felt light; today, I wanted to call Tarkan a "legend." Every time I listen to Tarkan—whom I listen to without being able to sit still and whom I keep separate from all other pop stars by saying "you are different"—I remember what a teacher of mine in middle school said about the then-newly rising Tarkan. When they said that popular culture would find no place in time and that Tarkan, who is on everyone's lips today, would soon be forgotten and fade away, I silently disagreed. There would surely be those who remained from every era, and many of them are still ringing in our ears...

A person carries the songs they listened to in their childhood and youth in their heart, even if they are not in their ears, of course, but Tarkan showed once again that he is more than just the 90s. From his smile when he said "Kıl oldum abi" to the humanity in his reaction of "çişim var abi," he touched the star within all of us amidst so many artificial lights in a single night.

He is no longer a 'popular culture object,' nor can his fans be defined as 'masses.' As the concert ceased to be just a concert and turned into a collective internal act, everyone was singing their own song with their own Tarkan; everyone was shining with their own star... Unlike the approach emphasized in the Pop Art of the 60s, everyone was not becoming famous for 15 minutes; perhaps they were growing by living and integrating time into the lyrics.

Art touches, art even burns... As a painter and a social scientist, I have always found the direct effect that music creates on the human soul to be very surprising; no exhibition hall is like a concert venue.

In this period where artificiality is experienced so intensely, this situation, which occurs spontaneously in its natural flow, is undeniable in its reality, even if it seems exaggerated.

And a star that does not collect the light of society in a cloudy sky cannot shine this brightly...