Intersections of Music, Politics, and Digital Media: Bandista (original) (raw)

The Turkish music collective Bandista was founded in Istanbul in 2006. Through multilingual framing texts provided on their website and their incorporation of a wide variety of musical genres they emphasize the international dimension of their music. Furthermore, their songs are politically motivated, and address universal issues of exile, deportation, and human rights. In choosing the Internet as its sole medium for distribution and through their invitation to download and share their music at no cost through technology not bounded by the nation state Bandista promote distribution on their own terms. By examining their latest album’s lyrics, distribution practices, and digital meta-commentary, this paper argues that Bandista avail themselves of new technology to re-activate and re-imagine longstanding calls for international solidarity in the face of human rights violations, thus situating their music at the digital nexus of politics and aesthetics.