Rock and alternative music in Iran
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| Iranian music: Topics | |||||||||
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| Languages | Persian, English, German | ||||||||
| Awards | Tehran Underground Music Festival | ||||||||
| Charts | none | ||||||||
| Festivals | Tehran Underground Music Festival | ||||||||
| Iranian Online Rock Radio Stations | Zirzamin | ||||||||
| Online Media | Iranian underground music wikia,Iran rock portal,Iran rock news,Tehran Avenue, Zirzamine, Cafe Tehran, Blues Bazar | ||||||||
| Major Iranian musicians | |||||||||
| Niyaz– Kourosh Yaghmaei; Angband–Meera– Vas– Barad– Laleh– Kiosk– Buddahead– Shahin and Sepehr– Agah Bahari– Hypernova | |||||||||
Iranian rock (Persian: راک ایرانی) is a form of rock music that is largely produced in Europe and Tehran's underground circles, and is rising to challenge "Tehrangeles pop", which has dominated the popular music genre of Iran for decades.
Iranian rock is almost entirely in Persian language. There are however musicians of Iranian descent both inside and outside Iran that produce their rock music in languages such as English or German. Iranian rock has its roots in American rock, British rock and German rock, but has its own distinctive elements mixed in to create a homegrown class of sounds and melodies, whether progressive, hard, or heavy metal. There has been many movements since mid 90s.
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[edit] History
Rock music in Iran inspired by remarkable events like Shiraz Arts Festival and bands like Pink Floyd, Camel, and Eloy, has its beginnings in the 1970s with musicians such as Kourosh Yaghmaei. The 1979 Islamic revolution did not allow this musical genre to survive long. Ayatollah Khomeini banned rock music, inspiring The Clash to write Rock the Casbah.
During the late 1990s president Mohammad Khatami advocated a more open cultural atmosphere in his domestic policies, Iran came to witness a unique blossoming of an indigenous breed of Rock and Heavy metal musicians. What separates this movement from its Tehrangeles pop counterpart is the young age group and the fact that it is almost entirely homegrown, and mostly underground.[1]
[edit] The contemporary scene
Within a few years after the launch of Tehran's underground scene in the late nineties, some bands started superimposing the poetry of Persian literature such as Hafez in their lyrics on top of classical western rock tunes and melodies, and peppered with sounds of traditional Persian music.[2]
Public open live concerts are heavily restricted by the government. Most rock bands however can obtain permission to perform on stage live, provided their music is purely instrumental or with Farsi lyrics approved by ministry of culture. rarely music with English lyrics has been performed by bands such as Barad.
There were underground competitions and music critics writing of these bands. Occasionally the government allows rock concerts to take place under strict conditions.[3]
One of the most important events in Iran’s heavy metal scene happened in 2008 when power metal act Angband signed with German label Pure Steel Records.[4] they are the first Iranian metal band to release their work internationally through a European label.[5]
They released their debut album Rising from Apadana in 2008 and they collaborate with the well-known producer/ sound engineer Achim Kohler (Primal Fear, Amon Amarth) for the production of their second album Visions of the Seeker that came to life in October 2010.[5]
Awarded an Un Certain Regard Special Jury Prize Ex-aequo by Cannes Festival in 2009 No One Knows About Persian Cats [6] a film by Bahman Ghobadi revealed the legal challenges and obstacles young musicians in Iran have to face where government is severely confined.
[edit] Rising Faces in Iranian Rock/ Metal Music
The following samples a list of homegrown Iranian rock bands, mostly active in Iran. Some are approved by the government, other continue to operate underground because of the restrictions imposed by The Ministry of Islamic Guidance.
- 127, One of the first Iranian rock bands that toured the USA.[7] Their music is a mixture of rock,jazz and Iranian melodies.
- Agah Bahari, who has been collaborating with Derek Sherinian, formerly of Dream Theater and Planet X.
- Angband, A notable power metal band which is first Iranian metal act to release its work internationally through a European label.[5]
- Barad (band), An Iranian folk rock band.
- Buddahead A notable Iranian Rock band"[8][9]
- Hypernova, A notable New York based Rock band from Tehran.
- Kavus Torabi, A multi-instrumentalist Progressive Rock Artist.
- Kiosk, a country/blues/alternative rock band
- Laleh was nominated with 7 Grammis in Sweden in 2005. She won 3 of the nominations for her song
- Meera: an Iranian Rock band.
- Mohsen Namjoo was an Iranian musician mixing the elements of iranian traditional music with rock
- The Yellow Dogs Band, A young Iranian underground indie rock band.
[edit] Iranian rock record labels
[edit] See also
- Music of Iran
- List of Iranian musicians
- Iranian Rap and Hip Hop
- Culture of Iran
- Rock and Roll
- Iranian art
[edit] References
- ^ Asharq Al-Awsat: "Iran's Underground Music Revolution". Accessed May 27, 2007. Link: [1]
- ^ Tehran Avenue: Link
- ^ The Iranian. Link: [2]
- ^ Blabbermouth link June 2008
- ^ a b c Blabbermouth link August 2010
- ^ http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/10865364/year/2009.html
- ^ Martin Hodgson, The Guardian (Apr 22, 2007)
- ^ Review by New York Post, July 2004.
- ^ Review by Washington Post, July 2004.
[edit] External links
- Iranian underground music wikia
- Iranian rock portal
- Iranian rock news
- MTV report: Iranian band Hypernova tours in New York City
- BBC Report on O-Hum's first state sanctioned public concert
- BBC: "Fresh Iranian bands ready to rock"
- The Guardian: Rock bands struggling to be heard in Iran
- Christian Science Monitor: "You say you want a revolution? Iran bands rock on."
- The Boston Phoenix: "IRAN SO FAR AWAY: Tehran rockers 127 make it to America at last"
- Bar-Ax : Iranian Underground Music
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