Meri Kytö

‘We are the rebellious voice of the terraces, we are Çarşı’: constructing a football supporter group through sound

This article deals with the soundscapes of Çarşı, the supporter group for the Beşiktaş Gymnastics Club. It can be argued that this supporter group functions like an acoustic community. Following the idea of acoustemology (i.e. acoustic epistemology), the article seeks answers to the following questions: What can we know about the group by listening to it? What does chanting and sounding contribute to the group and what does the ways it manifests sonically tell about the community? The marches, chants and sonic rituals draw the supporters together constructing a sense of a shared space in which there are communally used and interpreted sounds. It seems that this acoustic community is also supported by an electro‐acoustic community. There are multiple ways in which the fans not being able to attend the matches or pre‐match gatherings in situ can share and learn about the acoustic atmosphere.