Analysis of Barış Manço’s Songs Within the Scope of Values Education

Abstract

In music lesson, songs are educational materials that not only make the teaching process enjoyable but also help convey many of the learning outcomes in music teaching programs to students, stimulating their affective, cognitive, and psychomotor domains. In addition, the value themes within the scope of “values education” that are intended to be instilled in students are also an integral part of the educational process. In instilling value themes in students, it is important to carefully select classroom activities and educational materials (songs) that are appropriate for the students’ levels and stages of development. Based on this, songs by our state artist Barış Manço, who is sensitive to universal and national values, emerge as materials that can potentially be used in the music education process due to their popularity and didactic elements.

In this study, the “Elementary School (Grades 1-4), Middle School, and Imam Hatip Middle School (Grades 5-8) Music Lesson Curriculum“ and the ”Secondary Education Music Lesson (Grades 9, 10, 11, and 12) Curriculum“ aim to demonstrate the functionality and supportive nature of songs with lyrics by Barış Manço in instilling ”core values” (justice, friendship, honesty, self-control, patience, respect, love, responsibility, patriotism, and helpfulness) in students. The songs analyzed in the study consist of 91 Turkish-language works with lyrics by Barış Manço, which he performed in album recordings (records, cassettes, CDs). The study was designed as descriptive and survey-based. Using the document review method, a descriptive analysis was performed of the core value themes contained in the song lyrics. The meanings of the core value themes, which constitute the unit of analysis, were based on the definitions provided in the Turkish Language Association’s online dictionary. According to the analysis results, it was determined that the lyrics of Barış Manço’s songs directly or indirectly support at least one of the core values in terms of the value themes they contain, and that the most frequently addressed core value theme is “love” (76.9%). In addition, it was determined that the lyrics of 13 songs (14.2%) are not suitable for use in educational activities due to the expressions they contain.