Iran denies Ahmadinejad banned Western music on TV

[kraf001]

Iran denies Ahmadinejad banned Western music on TV

Tehran: Iran on Friday played down an order by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to ban Western music on state television (http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=73418), saying he had only made "recommendations" against "immoral" music (http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=73418).

"What was approved by President Ahmadinejad in the cultural council were recommendations not to play any immoral kind of music," Javad Ariamanesh, a member of the cultural council, told the news agency ILNA.

Ariamanesh said the main aim was to expand Iranian rather than Western music, and also pay attention to Iranian-style pop music (http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=73418).

He added IRIB has been recommended not to go to extremes, referring to some techno music (http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=73418) occasionally heard on the state network (http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=73418).

There had been press reports earlier this week that Western music on state television network IRIB was being banned by Ahmadinejad.

Foreign press reports had said music by Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd and the Eagles has been banned but IRIB sources said the reports were not correct.

"The music by these artists has never ever been played on IRIB, exceptions were either instrumental pieces or instrumental versions of their music," an IRIB official said.

Music by Eric Clapton and Pink Floyd in particular is famous in Iran but still never played in Iranian TV (http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=73418) or radio except for some instrumental passages on certain programmes.

Also instrumental versions of Western hits are occasionally aired and sold legally on the market. The original music, however, is only available as pirated copies on the black market.

Iranian pop music is still legal in Iran and CDs and cassettes are sold in music shops.

The recommendations by the cultural council, which also include a correct use of the Farsi language rather than only slang, are still to be evaluated by several relevant sources before being implemented, Ariamanesh said.

Observers however say ultra-conservative Ahmadinejad prefers to have any sort of Western culture, including instrumental versions of Western music, kept off of the state-run TV.

But the IRIB is directly supervised by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his appointed representatives, therefore the president is constitutionally not authorised to take any decisions.


http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?ac...lnews&id=73418 (http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=73418)

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if you pay attention to the part in bold you might realize what has been going in these recent months... Iranian TV just like Iranian military is under the control of supreme leader, yet every time the idiot Ahmadinejad says something Western media does this huge maneuver on his words like he actually has any power....

on a lighter note: I personally would support restriction on Western music in Iran with sole purposes of giving more space to domestically produced music... for example Iranian musicians are getting into rock music but they still have a long way to go and in no position to compete with Western rock... a restriction on Western music could actually force Iranians to pay more attention to the new domestic bands and ultimately take us to the next level...

just to show you what I mean, here is couple of songs from a very famous Iranian rock band called “O-HUM”... they were on concert in Germany last year and the concert was broadcasted live by BBC ( the video (http://www.o-hum.com/media/video/Darvish%20[Live%20in%20Berlin%202004]-HQ.wmv) )...

http://www.o-hum.com/media/audio/NH/04.mp3 (http://www.o-hum.com/media/audio/NH/04.mp3)
http://www.o-hum.com/media/audio/NH/09.mp3 (http://www.o-hum.com/media/audio/NH/09.mp3)
http://www.o-hum.com/media/audio/NH/07.mp3 (http://www.o-hum.com/media/audio/NH/07.mp3)

their new album is out now and you can sample/buy it here if you live in North America!

http://cdbaby.com/cd/ohum/from/bamahang (http://cdbaby.com/cd/ohum/from/bamahang)

check out their official website in Farsi and English... make sure to see their Bios and interviews for some very interesting read on the suffering that an underground rock band goes through in Iran and how they are the pioneers of their field in Iran...

http://www.o-hum.com/ (http://www.o-hum.com/)

http://www.o-hum.com/fanz/2005/O-Hum%20[A.%20Ebrahimi]-2.JPG

[Ratamacue]

on a lighter note: I personally would support restriction on Western music in Iran with sole purposes of giving more space to domestically produced music... for example Iranian musicians are getting into rock music but they still have a long way to go and in no position to compete with Western rock... a restriction on Western music could actually force Iranians to pay more attention to the new domestic bands and ultimately take us to the next level...
I can see what you mean here, but you also have to consider that you need to have outside influences in order for music to develop. For example, rock & roll never would have developed (at least not in the way we know it) and spread like it has if it weren't for white kids like Elvis Presley listening to black music (blues and R&B specifically). And even if most home-grown music in Iran is underground, one day it might explode. An example here in the US would be punk rock, which was entirely underground and overshadowed all throughout the '80's, until Nirvana became popular in 1991-1992. Now, most all rock here in the US is an evolution of (or at least influenced by) punk rock.

[Lokos]

Of all the dumb s-h-i-t they could have banned, they opted for Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd and the Eagles? They're out of their minds...

All hail the aforementioned bands.

Lokos

[kraf001]

I can see what you mean here, but you also have to consider that you need to have outside influences in order for music to develop. For example, rock & roll never would have developed (at least not in the way we know it) and spread like it has if it weren't for white kids like Elvis Presley listening to black music (blues and R&B specifically). And even if most home-grown music in Iran is underground, one day it might explode. An example here in the US would be punk rock, which was entirely underground and overshadowed all throughout the '80's, until Nirvana became popular in 1991-1992. Now, most all rock here in the US is an evolution of (or at least influenced by) punk rock.
I agree 100%... that is why I used restriction not ban... what we need in Iran is space, because most ppl in Iran simply say thing like "there is no way we can make good rock in Persian" and never even consider listening to home grown bands... I for one started listening to rock after I heard bands like Pink Floyd and Scorpions… hearing those works I wasn’t gonna listen to homegrown rock until one day we went camping and I forgot to take my walkman and my friend (who is also a musician) only had CDs from O-hum and some other underground home grown band… I was forced to listen to them and I really liked them, trust me if it wasn’t for me leaving my System of a Down home I wasn’t gonna give these guys a chance!!