Persian Popular Music in 1969

Abstract

he field of popular music has been gaining prominence as an area of ethnomusicological study. In the past, it has suffered from neglect because, on the one hand, scholars who devote themselves primarily to the art music of the high cultures have found it unattractive because of its mass appeal, and on the other hand, the students of folk and of what was once called primitive music find it unacceptable because of its lack of authenticity and its association with modern technology. Perhaps another reason for the neglect of this large area of music is the difficulty of defining it. Definitions are lacking in most generally used encyclopedias of music, but a working definition of popular music in Western society appears to have several ingredients: (1) it is primarily urban in provenience and audience orientation; (2) it is performed by professional and trained, but normally not very highly trained musicians who usually do not take an intellectual view of their work; (3) it bears a stylistic relationship to the art music of its culture, but a lower degree of sophistication; (4) in the 20th century, at least, its diffusion has been primarily through the mass media of broadcasting and recording. It is normally assumed that popular music existed before these mass media came into existence, but it is difficult, in periods before the 20th century in Europe, and America, to distinguish among the three categories of music. Thus, a critical look at such materials as medieval secular music, which is normally accepted unstintingly as art music, will convince one that there is really little evidence to ifdicate whether it falls properly into any one of the three basic strata of art, popular, and folk music. It has been assumed that the high cultures of Asia also, in earlier times before the introduction of broadcasting, had-folk music and art music, but whether there was a phenomenon which could be properly designated as urban popular music is certainly not clear. During the 20th century, however, musics which fit the working definition of Western popular music given above have certainly emerged. Their role in culture and musical environment may differ from the role of popular music in the West, but if we were determined to find the three categories operative in nations such as Japan, China, India and Iran, we would have no difficulty finding them. Nevertheless, it is difficult to know how to class certain types of music, such as, for example, the Russian-inspired but largely still traditional music of Central Asia discussed by Slobin (1971). In Iran, it is relatively easy to delimit traditional art music