Western music banned in Iran

[jseankil]

George Michael, Eric Clapton and Kenny G will no longer be heard on Iranian airwaves after hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad issued a decree banning Western music from the country’s radio and TV stations.

The official IRAN Persian daily reported today that Ahmadinejad, as head of Iran’s Supreme Cultural Revolutionary Council, ordered the enacting of an October ruling by the council for Western songs to be banned. “Blocking indecent and Western music from the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) is required,” according to a statement on the council’s official website. “This is terrible,” said Iranian guitarist Babak Riahipour, whose music was occasionally played on state radio and television. “The decision shows a lack of knowledge and experience.”

...snip...

“Supervision of content from films, TV series and their voice-overs is emphasised in order to support spiritual cinema and to eliminate violence,” the council said in a statement on its website explaining its October ruling. Since then, he has jettisoned Iran’s moderation in foreign policy and pursued a purge in the government, replacing pragmatic veterans with former military commanders and inexperienced religious hard-liners.

He also promised to confront what he called the Western cultural invasion and promote Islamic values during his presidential campaign. Western music, films and clothing are widely available in Iran, and hip-hop tunes can be heard on Tehran’s streets, blaring from car speakers or from music shops. Bootleg videos and DVDs of films banned by the state are widely available on the black market.

...snip...

The council has also issued a ban on foreign films that promote “arrogant powers”, an apparent reference to the United States.

-full-
http://breakingnews.iol.ie/entertainment/story.asp?j=166524926&p=y665z563z

[TallahasseeGrannie]

1. Now THAT's a THEOCRACY!

[smirkymonkey]

2. Good way to alienate the youth population.

I think this will backfire.

[RaRa]

3. First thing that came to my mind, too n/t

[CottonBear]

7. A huge percentage of the Iranian population is very young.

Eventually, the old religous nuts will die off and the young people will take over. I don't knoiw how many younger people are extreme thocrats. Maybe with time the government policies will change.

[AndyTiedye]

11. What Do They Care What Young People Think?

The hard-liners have emerged triumphant. The reform movement is dead.
It never had any real power anyway and was set up to fail.
The youth will grow old under this theocracy, just as their parents did.

[0rganism]

4. Well, I could see banning Kenny G and George Michael on general principle

but when they ban Clapton, they've gone too far! Smash the State!

[JohnLocke]

30. Bwhahahahahaha

:D

[saigon68]

48. Salvador Allende IS ONE OF MY HEROS

His MURDER at the Hands of the Nixon Thugs and Killers was an OUTRAGE

[JohnLocke]

56. Yes, it was...

[RT_Fanatic]

45. I think banning Clapton

..."Unplugged" and beyond, is a good idea. He was GOD at one time, yes (just take a listen to "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs"), but since his musical dalliances with the likes of Phil Collins and Babyface, he's pretty much a has-been. "Me and Mr. Johnson" was a fluke.
:boring:

[0rganism]

46. I doubt Iran is going to exempt Cream from its ban on Western Music

Call it a hunch. ;)

[SoCalDem]

5. For a minute there, I thought they might have had a good idea

but then I noticed they had left off the "country" part:)

[imported_dem]

6. Based on the current state of western music

Can't say I blame them. It sucks.

[KansDem]

10. I hear you!

Hasn't changed much in 35-40 years. Just new wine in old bottles, or, perhaps more accurate, new Big Macs in old styrofoam...

[jseankil]

12. we're getting off subject but I have to disagree with you both

From hip-hop to electronic music the music has changed very much so. It seems every generation complains about the next generations music, that what hasn't changed.

[KansDem]

20. Yeah? You think so?

Listen to it...I mean, really listen to it. Still rhythm-based in 4/4 meter with duple division of the beat. Very little 3/4 and never any compound meters or division of the beat into 3s, 5s, etc. Drum sets and their electronic spinoffs, drum machines, are repetitious and boring. Where's the variety?
:boring:

Also, pop/rock is still essentially mono-thematic and mono-textural. Melody dominates with very little thematic development. Usually a motive is sounded (but never developed) and becomes the tune's "signature jiggle." Texture tends to be voice with rhythmic accompaniment. Accompaniment displays influence of earlier texture of guitar, bass, drums. Or electronics that ape guitar, bass, and drums. Also mono-dynamics throughout. Very few uses of volume less than mezzo-forte. Add up all these "monos" and you have bland, redundant music. Orchestration hasn't changed much (sorry, pop electronics tend to be one-dimensional--playing a synthesizer like a glorified organ or electronic guitar doesn't smack of "change" to me). Electronic music, I mean "real" electronic music broke the rules of tonality and modes (in addition to rhythm, texture, and timbre) but pop/rock is still essentially based on Western harmony (usually very few chords--tonic, subdominant and dominant) and scales (usually major or "blues scale"). Plus, much pop music in the last 35-40 years is text-based: very few purely instrumental compositions have been produced.

Now I can't argue about the commercial success of pop/rock. Producers, managers, recording technicians, marketers and promoters have work together to create a need to consume this commodity. Take your observation about "It seems every generation complains about the next generations music." The "war between the generations" was exploited by the commercial entertainment industry to sell many things, including pop/rock. And they have been and continue to be very successful. Also, at times it seems the music is really secondary. It is the "cult of personality" that makes it seem like its changing.

I have no problem with pop/rock music as a successful product of Western capitalism. I do have a problem with pop/rock marketed as "revolutionary, rebellious, 'new,' or 'always changing.'" It isn't. And it is stagnant due to corporate interests. Can't mess with the bottom line. Just reinvent the packaging but keep the product the same.

There have been some groups/individuals that have attempted to write experimental music, but these artists are few and far between. I would put Joni Mitchell and the Moody Blues in this category.

If the "artists" of today had lived during the Ars Nova, we'd all still be singing Gregorian chant.

[mvd]

34. I don't analyze so much

I just enjoy the music, and I do hear some differences. If you want real changes, something like Sigur Ros satisfies me. I've never been a fan of house or trance.

[Psephos]

36. Good thoughts, but beside the point, IMO

Music belongs to the right brain. With due respect for your intelligent analysis, I prefer the simpler method of Duke Ellington:

"If it sounds good, it is good."

I hear a lot of music that sounds good to me - more than I ever have in my life. Bless the internet and the mp3 for opening up new realms of music to me.

Peace.

[KansDem]

43. "If it sounds good, it is good."

That's the best yardstick, however, we must keep in mind that the "new realms" available to us via the commercial entertainment industry (or recording industry) represent only a fraction of .01% of what's out there.

There's a whole planet of musical experiences that the entertainment moguls won't bring to us--we just have to go out and look for it.

[teknomanzer]

29. you got it backwards...

The packaging is new the content is the SOS.

[KansDem]

44. Yes! Thank you...

"Old Big Macs in new styrofoam..."

Thanks for setting me straight. :hi:

[Jacobin]

15. They won't be missing much

[AndyTiedye]

17. You Just Need to Find Some Good Psytrance

[Tight_rope]

55. High five on that one. I list to international music.

With the exception of Jazz, I can't remember the last time I listen to the radio in my car. I buy cd's or copy cd's from friends.

[maddezmom]

8. jseankil

Please be aware that DU copyright rules require that excerpts of copyrighted material be limited to four paragraphs.

[jahyarain]

9. hmmmmm...let's see...

"replacing pragmatic veterans with former military commanders and inexperienced religious hard-liners"

i've come to the conclusion that the reason all these idiots (some call them leaders, i simply won't) hate each other is because they're so fucking alike

[bemildred]

19. Well said. Like peas in a pod. nt

[Village Idiot]

13. I wish that they would outlaw it in my country, too.

[jseankil]

14. How long until they ban kite flying? /nm

nm

[Bassic]

16. It's the Talibans all over again. nt

[mongo]

18. I would think the DU contingent of totalitarian socialists would applaud

this action. Iran is now a state to look up to by our own anti-porn, anti-video game, anti-hip-hop cabal on DU.

[Seabiscuit]

21. Oh, brother....

These kinds of posters are popping up all over this weekend. They're desperate as Bush flushes himself down the toilet.

[CAcyclist]

22. Rock The Casbah nt

[Hyernel]

23. So no Roy Rogers or Gene Autrey?

Yippie ki yi yeaa, git alooong little Mullah.

[shenmue]

24. I don't like Kenny G either...

but that's no reason to take away people's freedoms.

:7

[daleo]

25. This sounds like only the state radio/tv (similar to BBC/CBC/etc)

I presume there are private broadcasters as well, and the article makes no claims about them. I am not saying it is right, just that it isn't a complete censorship, as far as I can tell from the article.

[Xithras]

27. No, they're banned everywhere.

When the SCRC bans something in Iran, it bans it everywhere and from anyone. Once something is defined as "un-Islamic", it's de-facto illegal in that country. People caught playing the latest by Eminem will be charged with subverting Islam, a serious offense in that country.

Remember, this is the same council that banned BANANA'S as a "western indulgence" right after it took over, and imprisoned people selling or eating them. The SCRC is 100% theocratic....answerable to nobody, and in charge of everything. Any law in Iran can be overturned without recourse by these guys if they don't like it, and new laws can be written without review or any chance to object.

[daleo]

41. That may be, but it isn't clear from the article

I expect that point will be made clearer in some subsequent account.

I hadn't heard the banana story. Bananas definitely can inspire some strange reactions in politicians - I am thinking of the news articles about Caanan Banana a few years back. I suppose it is a combination of the sexual suggestiveness of the shape of the fruit, and the association with our simian cousins (I mean the whole human race, of course).

[olddad56]

26. Just don't let them ban country music. If that happens, nuke em.

[olddad56]

28. That does it, I'll never listen to Iranian music again.

[Township75]

31. I think I will move to Iran...

to get away from the prefab BS that passes for music here.

[fbahrami]

32. when I went to Iran in 2003

I was looking forward to hearing Persian music on TV/Radio.

Well no, all you'd hear were snippets of muzak - you know, 3 second spots for the weather report or the news program.

So there never was any real music on national TV or radio to begin with. They cut that off after the 1979 revolution, so you no longer had that many music programs, or if there was a rare program on TV they wouldn't show the musicians! And of course women were out altogether.

The point is, this story is more more part of the current anti-Iran campaign, than real news. The real news happened in 1979!

An aside - banning all sorts of music in 1979 resulted in a whole generation of young musicians playing classical Persian instruments as well as many 'alternative rock' and hip hop groups popping up!

[AlienGirl]

33. Is there any way we can convince * and this joker to move in together?

Seriously, :wtf: , the entire * administration should go move in with the Ahmadinejad administration on a little deserted island somewhere, and they can pass all the batshit-crazy culture-war laws they want and not be a nuisance to those of us in the sane world.

Tucker

[mvd]

35. Really, I think that our Constitution is the only thing..

keeping us from music and book banning. These neo-cons and religious extremists want to impose their way of life just as much as some of the dictators they rail against.

[Yavin4]

37. No Ashley Simpson?

Okay, score a point for Iran.

[mvd]

39. Well, I could do without her

Western music in general is a different story. :hi:

[raysr]

38. That's a great idea

maybe we could ban it here. You know, 90% of those country fucks are * supporters.

[madmark]

40. well at least they won't have to hear nickelback

[Hardrada]

42. Even Lawrence Welk?

Where did these guys come from? Anyway?

[rainbow4321]

47. "Pot. Kettle. Black" comment from the US State Dept

Funny, same could be said for chimp running the US....


http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAN_MUSIC_BAN?SITE=TXSAE&SECTION=MIDEAST&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-12-20-17-06-32


In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the ban shows that Ahmadinejad "is taking Iran 180 degrees from where the rest of the world is going."

[No Exit]

49. That does it! We must INVADE IRAN NOW!!

They hate us for our freedom!!!

[Gatchaman]

50. This makes me so sad...

I saw the Trans-Siberian Orchestra the other night, and all through a wonderful 2 1/2 hour performance, I marvelled over and over again at the beautiful power of music. While the music was often traditional religious music, and many people have many legitimate grievences with organized religion, the overriding message of peace and treating your fellow man as your brother, the uplifting power of music itself, the song of the human soul, is something that will outlast all the hatefilled rhetoric of small minded men like Ahmadinejad. I can definitely see how a tyrant would want to silence music. It is a power to be feared by the opperssor.

[No Exit]

52. Never fear. Our tyrant is bigger than their tyrant.

Our tyrant is getting ready to call air strikes on their tyrant. That'll show 'em that tyranny is just not the way to go! We'll pummel those Iranians into a healthy respect for beauty and truth and democracy and art!

[AnnieBW]

51. Country, too?

If they banned Western music, did they ban Country, too? :D

[HuffleClaw]

53. the soviets did the same

didn't stop folks from listeninng. and this won't either.

[B3Nut]

54. Remeber the Dead Kennedys?

"Music is banned in Khomeini's Iran
On the grounds that it stimulates the brain
We've done him one better in the land of Coke and honey
We use music to put peoples' brains to sleep." - Jello Biafra, from "Triumph Of The Swill"

That tune was on their Bedtime for Democracy record...bet a lot of that album would be relevant overall today.

Todd in Beerbratistan