Iranian Kurdish Diasporic Music in Sweden:The function of music in the Iranian Kurdish community living in Sweden and investigating the process of their musical acculturation

This article aims to recognize the diasporic musical culture of Iranian Kurds living in Sweden, in which the function of music in that community is examined, as well as the process of their musical acculturation would be analyzed. To achieve the objectives of the present research, these investigations are based on the theories of William Safran’s “diaspora”, Judah Cohen’s “interdiaspora”, and Mervyn McLean’s four classifications of the process of musical “acculturation.” In this study, considering their countries of origin, the Kurdish community in Sweden has been divided into four different diasporic groups, such as the Kurdish diasporic community of Iran, Syria, Turkey, and Iraq. In addition to the above stratification, another division has been developed between the diasporic community of the Iranian Kurds domiciled in Sweden and the musicians belonging to this group, according to which the Iranian Kurds are grouped into first, second, third generations and musicians who have immigrated to Sweden in the last two decades. After adopting the findings of the fieldwork to these theories, it will be comprehensible that both musicians in the diaspora and their audiences have always used music as a mechanism to redefine identity, represent the former homeland, and relocate to new geography. Thus, one of the functions of music amongst Kurds in Sweden has been to redefine “ethnic-cultural” identity, to form a kind of “homeland” made of music, and to create a kind of “diasporic intimacy” in Sweden. Furthermore, studies on the process of the musical interactions of Iranian Kurds living in Sweden show that in the face of different musical cultures in the social context of Sweden they have encountered a phenomenon called “acculturation.” In encounters each of these cultures, the results of acculturation process enjoyed diverse states. Eventually, the outcome of the various states involved in the process of the acculturation is the major changes have taken place in the intervals, form, instruments, texture, and structure of Kurdish music to the point that these changes have contributed to the emergence of new genres in the Kurdish diasporic music.