Traditional Kurdish music is very distinctive from Arabic, Armenian and Turkish music, and mostly composed by people who remained anonymous. Thematically, the music were of melancholic and elegiac character, but has since then incorporated more upbeat and joyous melodies. Kurdish folklore consists of three genres: the storytellers (çîrokbêj), bards and popular singers (stranbêj).

Kurdish sources put the figure at 10 to 15 million Kurds in Turkey. Kurds mostly live in Northern Kurdistan, in Southeastern and Eastern Anatolia. But large Kurdish populations can be found in western Turkey due to internal migration. According to Rüstem Erkan, Istanbul is the province with the largest Kurdish population in Turkey. Iran