Musicianship among the Gypsies and the Effect of Changing Social Conditions on the Musician Identity

This study has been built upon the ways in which Gypsies, with an identity of professional musicians living in the western part of Turkey, incorporate themselves into the daily life of cities. The main argument of this study is to determine the attitudes of Gypsy musicians within a socio-economic and socio-psychological context given the ever-changing social life of cities; to determine the role of education in this transformation and to analyse changes within the social statuses of these musicians based on the aforementioned determinations. The group to be studied will be Gypsies based in Istanbul. A similar social structure is also observed in some other major cities, such as Bursa, Izmir and Ankar