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ABSTRACT
This article examines the impacts of Covid19 on musicians and music professionals in the Iranian music industry, an industry that heavily depends on concerts and live performance. Placing the pandemic-related restrictions in the context of larger regulatory limitations imposed by the state, we explore how musicians navigate and exploit existing and emerging restrictions through a number of paradoxical developments. Addressing women’s presence in the Iranian music industry, we also argue that focusing exclusively on the state’s restrictions on female singers reduces women’s agency and ignores the important ways in which female musicians challenge existing restrictions and create opportunities for themselves.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. For more on the context of post-revolution Iranian media, see CitationSemati, “Living.”
2. For more on the context of popular music in Iran, see CitationHemmasi, Tehrangeles; CitationNooshin, “Subversion”; CitationNooshin, “Tomorrow Is Ours”; and CitationSiamdoust.
3. We intentionally do not use the label “underground” music in order to avoid conflating issues and collapsing contexts.
4. We do not mean to suggest that other genres of music are not available or popular in Iran. There is a rock scene, and there are even metal and jazz scenes (see CitationRobertson; CitationNooshin, “Language”; CitationHemmasi, Tehrangeles).
5. For more on discussions of “resistance” talk, see CitationSemati, “Sounds”; CitationNooshin, “Whose”; and CitationSemati, “Politics.”
6. “Stage concert” is the label that is used in Persian to designate a concert that requires a permit, has a larger audience, and generates revenue, as opposed to other kinds of concerts. “Educational concerts,” for example, are not subject to the same restrictions, are assumed to be held for educational purposes, and are not considered public performances.
7. For examples of a focus on the state’s draconian approach, see CitationYoussefzadeh; and CitationDeBano. For a more historical perspective on this issue see CitationChehabi; and CitationMaghazei. For an insightful analysis of this issue in the case of the most iconic female pop star, Googoosh, see CitationHemmasi, “Googoosh’s Voice.”
8. A full discussion of this conceptualization is beyond the scope of this article. For an example of the argument from a communication theory perspective, see CitationSquires.
9. Ahadi makes this comment in the context of a report on the impact of COVID-19 on the lives of Iranian female singers (see “CitationCoronavirus Restrictions?”).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Mehdi Semati
Mehdi Semati is Professor in the Department of Communication at Northern Illinois Univeristy, USA
Nima Behroozi
Nima Behroozi is a Ph.D. candidate in Media and Culture program at the University of Melbourne, Australia.