Growing up in Turkey in the 1990s, the whole live music scene was dominated by cover bands that played hits from the United States and Europe. It was not cool to like Turkish music then, and I was part of a generation that took pride in not listening to any of it.

But when I moved to New York and started doing music photography at the beginning of 2000s, some of the musicians I met were thrilled to hear I was from Turkey and they kept asking me about artists I barely knew. At first, I was surprised by their enthusiasm, but then I started feeling embarrassed, because everyone seemed to be more familiar with these Turkish musicians than I was. So I went back and listened to them—and was blown away.

Listen to a playlist featuring Turkish artists covered in this story: