کیوان آقامحسنی

After the first importation of gramophone records, the Iranian government banned some music styles for the first time in 1931. In the 1930s, the government examined the lyrics of songs to prevent connection with communist ideology. On the other hand, in the 1980s and 1990s, the Iranian government banned some musical genres such as rock and later hip-hop, because since the Islamic Revolution, America and its cultural products were considered an imperialist power. 

This article examines two periods in which the Iranian government banned some genres of music. First, the 1930s are considered. After the import of foreign gramophone records, the Iranian government prohibited some music styles for the first time in 1931. These regulations targeted recordings with communist content. The second period refers to the current musical life in Iranian society. "Musicians from certain Western European and American music genres, such as rock, hip-hop, and country, are not officially recognized and are not allowed to work due to the cultural policies in Iran since the Islamic Revolution, where America is considered an imperialist power."

This article is considered a qualitative research study. Regarding methodology, the theoretical framework section is based on library studies. Data collection in the results section is based on fieldwork, ethnography, netnography, and library studies.

Gramophone records can be considered as the dominant audio medium during the reign of Pahlavi I (1925-1941) because there was no national radio station in Iran at that time. Wide acceptance of these recordings in Iranian society led to regulatory measures by the government. The government was concerned about the expansion of gramophone records in Iranian society, so it intervened in the recording industry by setting up a regulation for it. With this, the government no longer allocated the affairs of the recording industry to the field of culture, but to the field of security. As a result, the recording industry came under the supervision of the Ministry of Interior and the police and was managed by them. Another set of regulations was approved by the cabinet on July 18, 1931. According to this regulation, recordings whose content was politically communist and socialist were classified as politically harmful and were prevented from entering Iran.The place of music after the Islamic revolution is highly dependent on the place of music in Islam. The more stable the new cultural policy became after the revolution, the more the limitations of music life became. These restrictions were caused by some religious interpretations that considered music haram. In addition to religious reasons, these restrictions also had a political background. Western populist music was seen as a symbol of the modernized politics of the Shah's regime. After the 1997 presidential election, Iranian music, especially popular Iranian music, was transformed. At the beginning of the 21st century, pop music was a well-known concept in Iran's cultural policy. However, the genres of hip-hop, rock, and country were not recognized by Iran's cultural policy and were classified as imperialist culture.Rock music, despite all the restrictions, managed to find some freedom in the late 1990s. But in general, it was not common for rock bands to get a publishing license. As a result, many bands abandoned their formal activities and instead used the Internet as a new way to connect with audiences. Rock music was undoubtedly famous among the youth in the 2000s. In this situation, cultural politicians implemented a new strategy. Music custodians in the government promoted an official rock scene in Iran that was neither strongly political nor critical. The protesting nature of informal rock music turned into lyrical and mystical content.The roots of hip-hop in Iran go back abroad to an Iranian group called Sandy in Los Angeles in the early 1990s. Like rock music, the Internet also played a significant role in the spread of this genre of music. Iranian hip-hop music is divided into the following categories in terms of content and discourse: pleasure, street rap, radical protest, 6/8, critical-moral, Islamism, women's rights, and women's homosexuality.The focus of this article on country music as a research topic about imperial music genres is because the author came across an album in this genre that was published on Instagram. Mehrshad Vafaei released the album "From the Lute Desert to Arizona" in 2019, which is remarkable, because this album was released unofficially. It is safe to say that no such album has been released after the Islamic Revolution. This album contains ten songs, six of which are in Persian. Mehrshad Vafai released this album in collaboration with American musician Jerome Parker Wells. This cooperation is culturally and politically significant. As a part of the Fajr Music Festival, Jazz American Animation Group was exceptionally present in Tehran in 2015. This is an unprecedented issue and no band from America had the opportunity to participate in this festival. In addition to this political dimension, the presence of the American music group in Iran also has a cultural dimension, which ultimately led to the cooperation between Mehrshad Vafaei and American musicians. This is another aspect of globalization based on the theory of Arjun Appadurai, which is based on ethnic and technological landscape. Mehrshad Vafaei plans to create a kind of Iranian country music. Globalization happened in the first album of Mehrshad Vafaei at the textual level. At the musical level, this issue is not recognizable. Mehrshad Vafaei faced plenty of opposition when releasing his album because country music was unacceptable to the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. The relevant commission, which evaluates applications for the release of albums in terms of music and lyrics, rejected the use of the "Country" name. They thought the word sounded too American.

Music and football are both identity-enhancing phenomena that come together in a third phenomenon called fan chanting. Fan chants are considered a musical behavior from the perspective of ethnomusicology. Ethnomusicology does not have an object-oriented approach and emphasizes more on performance. In the duality of music/work-performance, ethnomusicology gives more importance to performance. Music is a social activity through which people create their identity. In relation to the issue of identity, ethnomusicology specifically deals with the contribution of music in the formation of social identity. In this connection, four aspects are examined: 1. music as a symbol of identity, 2. music as an opportunity to share identity, 3. music as a factor in creating an emotional quality for identity, and 4. music as a factor in creating a positive capacity for identity. The formation of fan chants is based on participatory performance, where the emphasis is on the maximum participation of people and there is no mention of the duality of artist-audience. With this perspective, performance does not exist for the sake of presenting musical works, but musical works exist so that they can provide artists (fans) with something to perform. One of the common functions of music among different cultures is the issue of expressing identity. One of the aspects of identity is ethnic identity, and fan chanting becomes a vehicle for the manifestation of this type of identity in multi-ethnic countries. Based on field research conducted in Tabriz and using the netnographic method, the main musical sources used by Tractor fans to make chants are as follows: Iranian, Turkish and Azerbaijani popular music, religious music, political slogans related to the Islamic Revolution, chants by fans of Turkish football teams and folk music. Melodies are used from mentioned musical sources, with changes in the original texts. After changing the text, two modes are possible; either the original melody is used in a simpler way, or basically "de-melody" happens and the slogan is sung on the platforms with an emphasis on keeping the rhythm of the original source and with new words. Of course, we should not consider "simplification of melody" and "de-melody" as an absolute binary, but in fan slogans, the use of melody is dynamically changing between "simplification of melody" and "de-melody".
These chants, especially since 1388 (2009), with the re-ascension of Tractor to the Premier League of Iran, are widely associated with identity themes. From 1388 (2009) to the beginning of the 1390s (2010s), under the influence of ethnic movements in the 1380s (2000s) in Azerbaijan, these chants took on a political aspect and emphasized issues such as autonomy. After that and with the security measures, the political aspects become less prominent and the cultural aspects become more prominent in the chants. Emphasizing Azerbaijan as a motherland is one of the most important concepts raised in the repertoire of fans' chants in recent years. Emphasis on Azerbaijani identity often occurs in the text, and in terms of musical genre, there is no limit to the use of non-Azerbaijani music.

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.

Applied ethnomusicology is a growing trend across arts and humanities, towards the societal usefulness of academic work. In the second half of the twentieth century, it involved a variety of activities, such as holding festivals to preserve traditional music. In the 21st century, the second major trend in applied ethnomusicology has emerged i.e. music is seen as a tool to solve social problems. Some of the most common areas in applied ethnomusicology are: trying to realize the rights of deprived cultural and musical groups, protecting musical rights in the form of archival projects, trying to realize cultural and musical rights of minorities, efforts to protect the natural and social environments of musical cultures, participation in crises such as war and health and, cross-cultural music education. Applied ethnomusicology, in its modern sense, has no place in the current discourse in Iran. In other words, no trace of applied ethnomusicology can be found among the approved lectures and post-graduate dissertations in this field. In short, the potential of applied ethnomusicology has been widely neglected in the cultural policy of Iran. Among cultural opportunities offered by applied ethnomusicology include: redefining deprived cultural-musical groups and supporting them within the framework of popular festivals in the country, Establishment of regional music archives in deprived areas in order to have a lasting impact on the musical life of those regions, provide solutions to improve cultural-musical conditions of Afghan immigrants.