The Contribution of Pre-Revolution Songs to Building Collective Representation in Iranian Movements

FACULTY OF SOCIAL STUDIES

A Playlist We Know: The Contribution of Pre-revolution Songs to Building Collective Representation in Iranian Movements

Master's thesis

ARGHAVAN BAGHERNIA ABKENAR

Supervisor: doc. Bernadette Nadya Jaworsky, ph.D.

Department of Sociology Programme Cultural Sociology

Brno 2021

A PLAYLIST WE KNOW: THE CONTRIBUTION OF PRE-REVOLUTION SONGS TO BUILDING COLLECTIVE REPRESENTATION IN IRANIAN MOVEMENTS

Bibliographic record

Author: Arghavan Baghernia Abkenar Faculty of Social Studies Masaryk University Department of Sociology Title of Thesis: A Playlist We Know: The Contribution of Pre- revolution Songs to Building Collective Representation in Iranian Movements Degree Programme: Cultural Sociology Supervisor: doc. Bernadette Nadya Jaworsky, ph.D. Year: 2021 Number of Pages: 95 Keywords: music; social movement; protest; pop music; Iranian 1979 revolution; pre-revolution Iran; pre-revolution music; Iranian protest songs; cultural sociology; social performance; collective representation

2 A PLAYLIST WE KNOW: THE CONTRIBUTION OF PRE-REVOLUTION SONGS TO BUILDING COLLECTIVE REPRESENTATION IN IRANIAN MOVEMENTS

Abstract

This thesis examines the role of pre-revolution Iranian songs in building a system of collective representation of the political and social situation of the decade leading to the 1979 revolution in Iran. The songs create a narrative with binary codes and symbols, similar to the background script of the movement, that is relatable and understandable for people, and solidarizes them in the movement by forming collective identities and emotions. The songs bear the core ideas of the revolution as a social movement and carry them through time.

A PLAYLIST WE KNOW: THE CONTRIBUTION OF PRE-REVOLUTION SONGS TO BUILDING COLLECTIVE REPRESENTATION IN IRANIAN MOVEMENTS

Declaration

Prohlašuji, že jsem práci na téma A Playlist We Know: The Contribution of Pre-revolution Songs to Building Collective Representation in Iranian Movements zpracovala sama. Veškeré prameny a zdroje informací, které jsem použila k sepsání této práce, byly citovány v textu a jsou uvedeny v se- znamu použitých pramenů a literatury.

Brno May 19, 2021 ...... Arghavan Baghernia Abkenar

A PLAYLIST WE KNOW: THE CONTRIBUTION OF PRE-REVOLUTION SONGS TO BUILDING COLLECTIVE REPRESENTATION IN IRANIAN MOVEMENTS

Acknowledgments

I wish to thank my family for their unconditional support through my studies. I am beyond thankful to all my friends (whose names would make a long list), who made the challenging time of writing this thesis bearable and pleasant for me with their presence and compassion. I especially thank my supervisor doc Nadya Jaworsky for her support and patience during this project.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Table of Contents

List of Figures 11

List of Tables 12

1 Introduction 13

2 Methodology 17 2.1 Cultural Sociology and Interpretation ...... 17 2.2 Data collection and analysis ...... 19

3 Theory and Literature Review 24

4 Analysis 30 4.2 On the history and the socio-political context of the 1979 revolution ...... 30 4.3 The art and intellectual discourse of the decade before the revolution ...... 32 4.4 The pre-revolutionary popular music and Tarane-ye Novin ...... 33 4.5 The protest songs ...... 36 4.6 Pre-revolutionary protest poetry and lyrics ...... 39 4.7 The stronger effect of songs compared to poetry ...... 44 4.8 Songs as scripts for a cultural performance ...... 46 4.8.1 The description of the situation ...... 47 4.8.2 The antagonism between the protagonist and an ambiguous enemy 53 4.8.3 The call for movement and change ...... 58 4.8.4 The visions of the desired state ...... 65 4.8.5 Employing familiar elements and a nostalgic remembrance 66 4.9 The role of Iranian pre-revolutionary songs in the post-revolution context ...... 70 4.9.1 What happened after the revolution? ...... 71

9 TABLE OF CONTENTS

4.9.2 Islamic Republic’s use of pre-revolutionary protest songs ... 73 4.9.3 The pre-revolution songs as tools of protests to the Islamic Republic 75 4.9.4 The sound of protest coming from exile ...... 76 4.9.5 Pre-revolutionary music, links generations of Iranians together 78

5 Conclusion 80

Bibliography 83

Name Index 92

10 LIST OF FIGURES

List of Figures

Figure 1 35

Figure 2 35

Figure 3 37

Figure 4 38

Figure 5 38

Figure 6 64

11 LIST OF TABLES

List of Tables

Table 1 21

Table 2 53

Table 3 58

Table4 64

12 INTRODUCTION

1 Introduction

Popular songs have the power of becoming the soundtrack for when people, together or alone, experience life. Whenever, and wherever a successful popular song is played, individuals come together and start singing along with the words that they know by heart. At that moment, they are present in a world of shared feelings, memories, and meanings that the song reveals. If the songs are born around a sensitive historical moment like a revolution, they find a more complex relationship with their context and can carry and revive the ideas, demands, and struggles of society. The Iranian revolution of 1979 happened eighteen years before I was born. The change of every dimension of Iranian life after the revolution was drastic, therefore the pre-revolution era is a world of imagination for my generation. One of its spectacular souvenirs is the pre-revolution pop songs. Although pop music had huge developments and innovations in the 1960s and 1970s, it was announced forbidden after the victory of the fundamentalist Islamic rules in the aftermath of the revolution. Musicians had to flee or remain silent, and publishing and consuming pop music slid to the underground layer of Iranian life like many other habits. While copying and selling pre-revolution music records was considered a crime when I was growing up, these songs were kept carefully, replayed and celebrated in the exile media and lived on in our living experience. The illegal practice of keeping the songs, was a form of resistance to the oppressive power that resembles the narrative of resistance and protest that the songs of pre-revolution represent. A series of iconic pre-revolution songs have survived the time and the backlash of the state power and kept a place in the memory of old and new generations of Iranian people. These songs have a symbolic, open-ended, date and place-free narrative of protest. At the time of their creation, the censorship system suspected they carry subversive messages towards the second Pahlavi monarch. Since they were produced in the decade leading to the 1979 revolution, the ways that these songs were influenced by the protest atmosphere of their time, reacted to the political and social turbulences, and represented a narrative of action and resistance are observable. But what fascinated me to start this research was to think of the relationship between the songs and the revolution

13 INTRODUCTION the other way around: how can the songs have an effect in solidarizing people through collective actions like a revolution? Can they shape, or strengthen a certain way of perceiving the social and political situation and acting upon it? In social movements, alongside the political, social, and economic causes and effects of the movement, the role of the cultural products is usually un- derestimated. But the solidarity of the actors is the result of a collective understanding of the situation, intentions of action, and visions of the desired state. The Iranian revolution of 1979 is usually explained by the political, economic, and cultural dissatisfaction of the second Pahlavi regime as the causing factors, and the history-changing impact it had on the country af- terward. In this thesis, I chose to look deeper into the dynamic relationship between the pre-revolution cultural products and the revolution as a big social movement and investigate the work of cultural products on the formation of a collective understanding, that could solidarize people and orientate their actions. Music has an important role in shaping the collective meanings and identities in the movements. In the case of Iran, less work is done on the relationship between the revolution and the organization of people toward a united action, with the pop music of the decade before the revolution. This is partly the consequence of the removal of this music after the revolution and associ- ating it with Islamic immorality, and partly the neglection of academia in fields of Iranian sociology and arts that underestimates pop music as a potential force in organizing and solidarizing people towards movements. I went after the pop pre-revolution songs in this thesis based on my intuition that told me there must be something in these songs that makes them relatable from the 1970s until now specifically around protests and movements. My strong and emotional relationship with these songs grew in the heat of the protests in 2009 in Iran when listening to these songs was a way for me to express my frustration, and sharing them with my friends and family let me observe how the songs connect our way of feelings and framing the reality around us. As I was discussing the topic of this thesis with a friend, he pointed to the collectivity of this intuition saying: “what you are saying about these songs, is something that we all know somehow, but it stays more like a feeling, nobody ever academically proved it.” Ironically, the generation that made the 1979 revolution happen, and our post-revolution generation both relate to the same story of oppression, resistance, and protest, even though the oppressive and the oppressed have

14 INTRODUCTION switched roles. Therefore, the magical power in the pre-revolution protest songs that link both generations is a simple, protest-bearing narrative they represent, and the combination of elements that make this narrative have a long-lasting strong effect in bringing people’s minds together. Music is a cultural form that is worth being estimated as a meaning-making practice. With methods to be catchy, tangible, and relatable, pop music becomes people’s mundane daily consumption and their collective practice and can build the cultural webs of meaning. When songs have both popularity and hidden political messages, they can connect people in a world of specific positions against their social and political situation. In this thesis, I argue that the songs, having been the products of a special mindset around the revolution, have features that enable them to reinforce a shared set of meanings and positions about the political situation. A sense of solidarity is produced in sharing the narrative of the songs through the practice of listening to music. As Esfandiar Monfaredzadeh, a pioneer composer of protest songs of the 1970s says these songs “do not cause revolutions but warm the hearts. They connect the hearts of people; tell them they are not alone in feeling what they are feeling” (Etemadi 2013). I first introduce the context in which the pre-revolution songs are born to explore the concepts they are representing. I review the political and historical context of Iran in the 1960s and 1970s and the key causing factors of the 1979 revolution. From there, I introduce the ways that the art and intellectual discourse of this time reflected the struggles of this context. I observe that in these decades, arts were simultaneously experiencing freedom in shaping modern objectives for a civil society, and political oppression. In this special setting, pop music found a platform to grow in aesthetics and popularity and used this platform to integrate a narrative of protest and resistance. Although the protest spirit in the songs is enhanced by using musical tech- niques and context-specific elements, the lyrics are the central carriers of a narrative of understanding the current situation, recognizing the enemy, and solidarizing to act upon it. With the use of binary codes that define the good and the evil, the songs enable the audience to identify as a collective protagonist fighting against an oppressive power. The songs provide the ideas of the movement to their listeners, in the form of a script that is easy to understand, affects them emotionally, and can be remembered and revived through time. These ideas have a relationship with the way people identify the reality of their social life and act upon it, not only in the certain event in which the

15 INTRODUCTION songs were made, but this effect lasts longer and is transferred to the next generations. As evidence to the argument that the effect of the songs is not limited to the context of the 1979 revolution and goes beyond that, I explored that the Iranian exile media, as the platform for expressing opposition with the Islamic republic, emphasizes these songs to narrate the frustration and to strengthen the solidarity and identity of the opposition, either in exile or in the country. At the same time, the Islamic republic re-interpreted some of the song’s narrative and its codes to identify itself as the protagonist and the Shah’s overthrown monarchy and the opposition as the antagonist. What stays unchanged is the narrative of the songs that contain a simple story of the fight of good with evil, that is vague and open-ended enough to be used in different contexts and have a mythical effect.

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2 Methodology

2.1 Cultural Sociology and Interpretation

This thesis is a qualitative research that analyses the selected pre-revolutionary songs in interaction with their political and social context and inter- prets them as linguistic and auditory structures to investigate their role in shaping collective meanings in people’s minds. The qualitative research de- sign has been chosen, because “qualitative data analysis is the classification and interpretation of linguistic (or visual) material to make statements about implicit and explicit dimensions and structures of meaning-making in the material and what is represented in it. Meaning-making can refer to subjective or social meanings” (Flick 2014:5). In this qualitative research I do an in- depth analysis of the songs as narratives that resemble the background scenario for the Iranian revolution and examine the co-relation of the songs with actors of social movements in the world of subjective and symbolic meanings. Cultural sociology is the main approach of this research since it has a strong focus on the cultural foundations of subjective and symbolic meaning. Cultural sociology, as Spillman (2002) states “investigate how meaning-making happens, why meanings vary, how meanings influence human action, and the ways meaning-making is important in social cohesion, domination, and resistance”(2002:1) Binary codes, collective representation, root metaphors, icons, performances, and narratives are cultural structures of meanings through which, cultural sociology traces the meaning-making processes like a psychoanalytical journey that brings the subjective formation of actions from the subconscious of the society into the light. (Alexander 2003) Iran is a country of external and internal conflicts. Forms of oppression and resistance are an inseparable part of the history of this old land. Through the lens of a “strong program” (Alexander 2003:11) in cultural sociology, we can view these hazards by investigating the shared meanings and perception of the social life, that solidarize people through revolutions and protests. To trace the effect of the songs as cultural forms on Iran’s revolution through a collective meaning-making process, my research is based on the most important quality of the strong program, which is believing in the “autonomy of culture”(Alexander 2003:17). Despite the weak program of sociology of

17 METHODOLOGY culture that sees culture as one of the social structures that could influence the collective meaning making, cultural autonomy in the strong program views culture as an independent viable in which the collective meanings are embedded, and culture is “the internal environment of action”(Alexander 1988) The strong program uses the “thick description” method of Clifford Geertz to interpret “the textured web of meaning” by hermeneutically reconstructing social texts, codes, narratives, and symbols, in a rich and persuasive way. (Alexander 2003:13). Geertz (1973) believes that actors are entangled in “a web of significance that they themselves have spun”, therefore the analysis of culture, is not a scientific experiment in search of laws, but an interpretation in search of meanings (1973:5). Approaching ethnography with the thick description method, Geertz studied culture by going beyond the surface ob- jective level of actions, to find out their deep intentions by reading the underlying meanings of the symbols and signs. Analysing the songs in this thesis is as Geertz describes, sorting out the structures of signification, that are the established codes of their social grounds and importance. Cultural sociology benefits from the contribution of Emile Durkheim’s insights in Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912), to show the symbolic dimensions of social life in myths and rituals. The master binary of sacred and profane conceptualized by Durkheim has an important place in the cultural sociology approach. Investigating this binary in cultural structures clears how meanings as the basis of orientations of actions, are formed around the idea of recognizing the evil force as the antagonist and the good force as the protagonist. According to Durkheim, symbols represent collective ideas and meanings, and it is in rituals that individuals come together in the set of these shared meanings. The subject of this thesis, music, has a Durkheimian ritual- like quality in bringing people together on a performative and emotional level (Eyerman and Jamison 1998). Furthermore, I explore the symbols and binary codes within the lyrics of the songs that can connect minds in a certain set of ideas and emotions. The strong program of cultural sociology uses the structuralist approach of the literary theorists to narratives, that treat textual forms as interwoven repertoires of characters and moral evaluations. It highlights meaning through the structural reconstruction of texts. At the same time, it acquires hermeneutic inquiry of interpreting texts by a thick description of symbols, codes, and narratives. The combination of these is the structural hermeneutics that is the foundation of the strong program as a methodology (Alexander 2003;

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Alexander and Smith 2001). My methodological approach in this research is also a structural hermeneutic analysis of the songs as texts, evaluating the structure of their narrative and a thick description of the codes and symbols in the songs that build a collective system of meanings.

2.2 Data collection and analysis

The main data and subject of analysis in this thesis are the selected Iranian songs made in the 1970s. Archived documentaries and interviews about/with the musicians of the songs are used to gather background information about the songs. Since the chosen songs are argued in this thesis to contain a symbolic narrative of protest, and a successful influence coming from their popularity, I had the explanation of the musicians about the creation context of the songs and the scope of their success and influence, and their struggles with the censorship back in mind when selecting them. Secondary literature on the history of revolution, art, and intellectual discourse of the decade before the revolution, social analysis of the literature and poetry of the time (that have a close relationship with the lyrics), and ethnomusicology of Iranian pre-revolutionary pop music are used to provide an extended analysis of the songs. They help to prove that these songs are the representation of the ideas and discourses of their social setting, in the perfect platform that made their effect on creating a collective, long-lasting meaning system. I chose the songs made in the 1970s because it is the decade leading to the revolution and I intend to analyse the co-relationship of the cultural products of this time (music) with the revolution as a social movement. As I will elaborately explain in the analysis chapter, in this decade there was meaningful progress in all arts including pop music, caused by the heated protest spirit from one hand, and the westernization and modernization of culture from the other hand. Pop songwriting in its modern definition with Persian lyrics started from the 1960s, and in the following decade went beyond its early experimentation and simple themes and integrated more complex meanings in harmony with the political atmosphere of the revolution. Drawing upon the theory of Alexander on social performance and cultural pragmatics (Alexander 2006), to show that songs contribute to the building of a collective representation, I take them as background scenarios/scripts that

19 METHODOLOGY represent the current situation and the desire for acting upon it. I extract one big narrative for the script that the songs, all together combined, build. To highlight this big narrative, after translating the songs from Persian to Eng- lish, I put together the similarly functioning parts of different songs as evidence for the different components of the narrative. The narrative consists of four main parts:

1. The description of the situation: in this part, which is the beginning of the songs, there is a representation and description of the situation. Many rhetorical devices such as symbols, metaphors, and binary codes are used to picture an unhappy current condition. 2. The antagonism of the protagonist and an ambiguous enemy: This part vaguely implies an external enemy that is causing the unpleasant situation, identified with profane codes in contrast with the sacred codes given to the protagonist. 3. The call for action: In this part that sits on a sonic change (bridge) in the middle towards the end of the songs, the narrator calls the audience to be aware, awake, and participate in a collective action to make changes. 4. The vision of a desired future: In this last part, the songs build an im- aginary picture of the desired future and the visions of a potential movement. The description of this vision comes in contrast with the negative descriptions of the current situation. My broad hypothesis here is that not only the few sample songs of this thesis, but almost the entire pop songs of the 1970s, contribute to different parts of this narrative (in different intensities) because they are inside one artistic tradition and discourse, and it is the contribution of all of them combined that signals an atmosphere, and gradually inscribes this script to the culture (as the meaning system). Albeit, to be able to highlight the narrative and its effect, in this thesis I have chosen the songs that have all or most of the four components of this narrative. Still some of them are more elaborate on one part and less on the other, and because of the limitations of this

20 METHODOLOGY manuscript I could not include the entire songs in the analysis (see the full text of the lyrics in the appendix). The seleced songs are the following: Table 1- list of the selected songs

21 METHODOLOGY

The sampling strategy is purposive, as it selects “information-rich cases, cases from which one can learn a great deal about matters of importance and therefore are worthy of in-depth study” (Patton 2002:242). Among the different purposive strategies, my approach can be an intensity sampling that refers to excellent or rich examples of the phenomenon of interest, but not highly unusual cases’ (Patton 2002:234). It also is in part a theoretical sampling strategy, because I selected samples in which the narrative and binary symbols are more distinguishable and coherent, but to focus on that big narrative and its features I had in mind the theory of the social performance and the concepts of collective representation, background scenario and binary codes. I found the best “manifestations of a theoretical construct of interest so as to elaborate and examine the construct and its variations” (Patton 2002:243). The approach of data analysis is discourse analysis. Songs are analysed as linguistic products, and a textured analysis in their symbols and codes and narrative is done to investigate the effect of the discourse in the social dimensions of meaning-making activities (Willig 2014). Discourse analysis is based on the concept that the individual use of language and thinking is also shaped by social and cultural forces. It is the way that something is talked about, the choice of words, the grammatical structure, and the rhetorical devices that can make sense of events in a specific direction. Discourses make available particular interpretative repertoires, which provide us with ‘a lexicon or register of terms and metaphors’, which can be ‘drawn upon to characterise and eva- luate actions and events’ in particular ways (Potter and Wetherell 1987). The focus of discourse analysis is the production and circulation of meaning through language and its role in the production of culture (Hall 1997). In this study, I focus on the text of the songs as discourses. I focus on the use of rhetorical devices such as the symbols, metaphors, imagery, and contrasting binaries in the text of the lyrics, as well as the song’s choice of a language between the lyricism of the poetry and availability of conversational dialect, and the special narrative/script in which they describe the situation and the orientation of acting towards it. I argue that all these factors combined create and strengthen shared meanings. The focus is on the effect of the songs as discourse rather than the thoughts and feelings of the creators of their creators (Willig 2014), though the notes of the musicians and secondary material are here to backbone the relevance of the analysis.

22 METHODOLOGY

Finally, I must note that the analysis in this thesis is not looking for a de- terministic causality; I do not argue that the effect of the songs causes a revolution or vice versa. Rather, a meaningful co-relation between them is described that remains as one interpretation among the others. It is a “fiction” as Geertz (1973) puts it, an analysis that moves from inscription (the meaning of the codes) to specification (their place in the structure of the society). It describes how the songs can have potential effects in connecting people through a collective feeling, and a certain way of narrating their dissatisfaction and ideals.

23 THEORY AND LITERATURE REVIEW

3 Theory and Literature Review

This chapter reviews the relevance of considering music as a solidarizing cultural product (and practice) around social movements, that can make collective identities, emotions and meanings and can sustain the ideas of the movements through time. Then I review the role of collective representation in shaping a scenario for social performance and mention the factors of that scenario that make it effective in calling the actors upon collective action. Drawing upon these theories, in this thesis I take the Iranian pop songs of the 1970s as contributors to the building of a collective representation and collective identity in the context of the 1979 revolution and beyond, and the narrative of the songs similar to the movement’s scenario. There are many scholarly opinions about the relationship between music and social movements, but the main framework of this thesis is based on those ideas that view social movements through the perspective of what is in the head of the actors that connects them in collective action, and consider music as one of the components of collective meaning-making and identity process. Social movements can be seen as the process of meaning-making in which the actors push for social changes according to certain ideas (Spillman 2002). In their book Music and Social Movements (1998), Eyerman and Jamison describe social movements as the embodiment of visionary, collective ideas of civil rights. In a deeper layer of the political activities that cause social movements, there are visions of alternative ways of framing the reality. The effect of social movement is not merely the attained changes in the political scene, but also the cultural transformation in values and preferences. In this sense, social movements function as processes of “collective learning”, “identity formation”, and “meaning construction” (1998:10). Social movement culture as a part of social movements is ‘characterized by a sense of group identity, an alternative interpretational frame of cause and effect, and a sense of political efficacy’ (Gamson 1995b; Snow 2001; Taylor and Whittier 1995 as cited in Danaher 2010) The “big drama” of social movements is not built from scratch, without the accumulated effect of rather “undramatic, mundane, daily activities of preparation” (Reed 2005). According to Reed, “social movements adopt already existing cultural structures to support the new goals and strategies set by the movement”(2005:14). Music is one of these already existing cultural

24 THEORY AND LITERATURE REVIEW structures and part of people’s daily life, that could provide a “vehicle for the diffusion of movement ideas into broader culture” (Eyerman and Jamison 1998:1). Music can be a pre-political activity as an “everyday process of meaning construction that inform political impulses and inspire actions” (1998:45), or an overt political activity used as a propaganda tool to recruit new members and call for participation (Eyerman and Jamison 1998; Roy 2010). Either way, the solidarizing power of music by contribting to the collective identity, meaing and emotion formation is at work. According to Eyerman and Jamison (1998), aound the social movements arts such as music transform their artistic merits and evaluation criteria. They get politicized by adopting the newly learned meanings and frameworks. The- refore, the music of the social movements, represent the collective visionaries of the movement and carry them through time. The symbolic meaning-bearing world of music sustains the core ideas of the movement even after the movement fades from the political scene. Thus, the cultural effect of the movement lasts longer than the movement itself and lives on in the arts such as music. Whenever the civil visions of the society are endangered, songs function as a remembering process, retaining the movement goals in the “collective memory” (1998:3). This makes music of a social movement “a vital force in preparing for the emergence of new movements"(1998:43). The songs of a social movement, are revived and repeated through the next movements and “link the social movements like a river of the embodied ideas and images between generations”(1998:10). The effect of music in creating and maintaining the core civil ideas is stronger than pure ideology due to music’s specific characteristics. The difference between ideology and music lies in the ritual-likeness of the practice of performing and consuming music, and the open-endednedness of the concepts in the lyrics which detach them from a certain date and place and enable them to make sense for anyone, at any time. (Reed 2005, Eyerman and Jamison 1998). The performance of music with its emotional and physical engagement is ritual-like, resembling the movement itself (Eyerman and Jamison 1998), and the collective experience of listening to music, recording it and watching videos is the core of collective identification/identity formation (Eyerman 2002). Music shapes the feeling of being in a community, which not only gives solidarity to the movement but is a discovery of self for the individuals as being part of a collective (Reed 2005). Durkheim (1912) sees ritual as a

25 THEORY AND LITERATURE REVIEW way to boost social solidarity by creating and maintaining group boundaries. Music is a kind of ritual interaction, that can offer an alternative framing of an issue and suggest a course of action (Gamson 1995a). Music arouses emotions and forms emotional attachments that contribute to the collective meaning formation (Futrell et al. 2006). In social movements and protests, emotions are a source of mobilization and keeping the solidarity of the actors, and establishing group boundaries (Collins1990, Jasper 1998). The meaning of the lyrics, the act of singing together (or remembering together), participating in musical performance, and the rhythm of music can result in emotional reactions among participants and lead to group identity (Flacks 1999; Lipsitz 1994 as cited in Danaher 2010). Now, what are the qualities of that world of collective meanings that is created and maintained in songs and can contribute to the solidarity in the movements? To answer this question, I refer to an important theory that ex- plores the features of a collective meaning system that can catch the audience and call for participation, to later identify these features in the selected Iranian pre-revolution songs. In his book Social Performance (2006), Alexander takes social movement as a performance, that is analogized to theatrical performance and is composed of analytically distinguishable elements. The components of a movement performance are: actors, audience, directors, script, means of symbolic production (objects that can serve as iconic representations to help dramatize the actors’ motives and drives, and the physical scene of the performance), and social power (the structures that let some performers, some scenarios and some interpretations win among the others). Through a cultural performance, societies “display the meaning of their social situation”(2006:32) to inform an audience, which is either other societies or the members of the same society. If the elements of this performance, comparable to elements of a theatrical performance are “fused” well, representation of the situation and the mo- tivation of the actors is communicated with the audience. The successful reading of the contents and intentions of the actors by the audience as “authentic and true”, rather than “inauthentic and artificial”, is followed by the empathy of the audience with the protagonists and at last, self-identification of the audience as the protagonist that encourage them to participate in the movement (2006: 32). The participation initially takes place on a psychological level which means sharing the feeling of resistance and support with the actors, then can proceed to take part in the political activity.

26 THEORY AND LITERATURE REVIEW

In case of the successful fusion of the elements of the performance, the social movement becomes like a “ritual”. In rituals “the shared understanding of the intentions and the contents”(2006:29), energizes the participants and connects them together and enables them to make social movements happen. Rituals are repeated and simplified cultural communication, in which the actors and the observers of a movement share mutual beliefs and validate the intentions and interactions. One core element of social performance is a “system of collective representation”(2006:33). This is a world of “signifiers” that represent reality, in the frame of the moral, existential, or emotional concerns of society, and reflect them into the discourse. The system of collective representations is based on symbols, with binary relations that define the sacred and the profane (the master binary concept taken from Durkheim [1912]). The binary opposition presents a simplified definition of the gray and complex reality and ori- entates the position of the audience against it. The collective representation is “a broader universe of meaning, [within which] performers make conscious or unconscious choices about the path they wish to take and the set of meanings they wish to project.” (2006:58) The collective representation forms a background script of a movement that can affect the audience and communicate the movement’s intentions. A background script uses a cognitive simplification of the reality by repeating the issues, careful explanation, stereotype making (hero and victim), melodramatic exaggeration and the employment of rhetorical devices such as symbols and metaphors (2006:59). It also frames the situation in a moral agonism between a protagonist, carefully aligned with the sacred codes, and an antagonist identified with the profane codes (2006:61). A foreground script that leads the performance of the social movement draws from the background collective representations, that are already formed and understood by society members. In this thesis, I discovered the elements of a background script and technics mentioned above that contribute to the building of a collective representation, in the pre-revolution Iranian songs. I find the lyrics like mini scripts for the cultural performance, that gain the power of implanting their ideas in the minds of society over time because of the features of pop music that were mentioned earlier in this chapter. Roy (2010) believes that the movements in which political parties intentionally infused political messages into music to recruit participants were less

27 THEORY AND LITERATURE REVIEW successful in gaining this purpose than the movements in which music was itself part of the cultural practice of the actors and was naturally raised from their already established tradition. He prioritizes the social relations in which the music is embedded, over the meaning that could give the song itself a solidarizing effect. In Roy’s view, there is no specific meaning in the sonic and lyrics of the music, it is rather the setting in which people listen to music, record, and keep it, and the way music is talked about that make it interpretable with political messages. The songs that I focus on in this thesis, were not intentionally ideology infused by a political party, but rather naturally integrated the movement ideas into the already popular forms of music in the era. Even though I agree with Roy that the discourse around the songs made them recognizable as protest songs, yet I consider taking the lyrics worthy of analysing autonomously as the meaning-making systems. I argue that the social relations and the platform they are created and presented in, are forces to increase the effect of the lyrics as the central meaning-bearing world. Lyrics are the main containers of the collective narratives and movement ideas. Lyrics provide a space for describing the grievances, the act of resistance against a status quo and provide solutions (Danaher 2010). Lyrics depict the underlying ideas of the social movement by bolding the key issues, framing their political importance, and leading to a collective consciousness (Flacks 1999). The lyrics gain more importance in the presence of censorship and oppression of speech. As Street (2003) argues, the artists who fear censorship tend to develop skills to hide political messages in a coded, vague and symbolic language. The shared interpretation of a coded language in the lyrics implies a sense of solidarity among the audience. I find it relevant to focus on the lyrics not only because of the innovative dynamics in which the lyrics in pre-revolution Iran communicated coded political messages, but also because poetry is an old, strong cultural structure in the Iranian society, and practiced significant dynamics of affect and effect around the 1979 revolution. In the last part of the thesis, I argue that after the revolution, the story of oppression and a desire for action, which was represented in the pre-revolution songs continued but in a new form. The roles of the oppressor and the oppressed changed, new groups employed the same songs with a change of interpretation that would serve them. According to Rolston (2001) “lyrical drift occurs when the meaning of a song is taken out of the context in which it was originally produced and reinterpreted by an audience in a different

28 THEORY AND LITERATURE REVIEW political context” (2001:55). The political significance of lyrical content changes according to the change of context, and the same song may be claimed and used by different actors. The Islamic government, used some of the songs in the official media, identifying itself as the protagonist against the Shah’s regime as the antagonist, while the protestors and critics of the Islamic republic, such as people in the street protests and the exile community, used the same songs to identify as the oppressed against the Islamic republic as the antagonist. Martiniello and Lafleaur (2011), state that music can be a process through which immi- grants and ethnic minorities can negotiate their identity with others and express their political standpoint and participation. The Iranian exile community and media formed their identity through being politically in opposition with the Islamic republic and focused on pre-revolution music to bolster this identity and shared memory while communicating and strengthening their opposition and resistance. To summarize, music has the power of carrying the core ideas and cultural learning of a social movement within it. With lyrics that can frame the key issues of a movement and function as background scenarios, with its accessible and ritual-like structure, and emotion raising it can form collective identity and collective representation in the movement and solidarize the members. When the movement as a political event fades away over time, its core ideas remain in the music and can be passed to the next generations, and the open-ended narrative of the songs can function in different political contexts. Now I examine these theories in analysing the pre-revolution Iranian songs to investigate their role in shaping collective representation and solidarity in the 1979 revolution and the post-revolution political context.

29 ANALYSIS

4 Analysis

4.2 On the history and the socio-political context of the 1979 revolution

In order to understand the context in which the pre-revolution pop music was formed, and to interpret the concepts it represents, in this section I review the history of the political and social situation of Iran in the decades leading to the revolution based on the narrative of Ervand Abrahamian in his book A History of Modern Iran (2008). After the forced abdication of Reza Pahlavi in 1941 by the Anglo-Soviet invasion, and his replacement with his son, Mohammad Reza, the totalitarian power of the monarch and the notables lost intensity for a short time, and in this gap, a socialist party called Tudeh (Mass) was formed. Tudeh soon at- tracted many members and sympathizers among the salaried middle class, especially the intelligentsia. Tudeh’s intellectual influence in Iran was very strong, as “the New York Times wrote Tudeh is stimulating the masses to think and act politically for the first time” (2008: 108). Among the members of the Tudeh party, there were the pioneers of Iranian modern arts and human sciences. The influence of the Iranian socialist party was a big part of the discourse of Iran’s modern cultural movements. Tudeh introduced new terminology to the public knowledge such as “class identity, class conflict, colonialism, imperialism, bourgeoisie, aristocracy, oligarchy, etc” (2008:108). Most importantly, for the first time, Tudeh demanded the nationalization of oil in Iran, which gave rise to the next prominent movement in 1950: the Nationalist movement. This movement was led by Mohammad Mossadeq, a charismatic prime minister who prompted the discourse of independent and decolonized Iran. Britain and the USA, offered to Mohammadreza Shah a raise of Iran’s share of the oil profit, in the condition of keeping dominance over the industry, and together they organized coupe to overthrow Mossadeq in 1953. After the overthrow of a popular patriot figure like Mossadeq, the new Pahlavi Shah, lost legitimacy for the masses. But he started claiming his power as a monarch with new plans, that despite his initial intention resulted in his downfall. Shah represented the 1953 coupe, as a mass movement against socialism and nationalism and to Shah’s support. Therefore, by oppressing these parties

30 ANALYSIS he intensified the political oppression in the following decades. In 1957, with the help of the FBI and the Israeli Mossad, he established an intelligence agency called SAVAK with thousands of secret informers to overwatch all Iranians, especially the former Tudeh and national guard members and the sympathizing intellectuals. This agency censored media and used “all forms of violent means to torture and execute the political dissidents” (2008: 126). To prevent a socialist rebellion from bellow and to build a massive modern state structure, Shah made fast, huge transformations in the social and economic system of the country, known as the “white revolution”. His land reform plans transferred the land ownership from the rural landlords to the government for the purpose of commercial farming or entrepreneurship. He also operated massive developments in health and education that resulted in the increase of young, educated population and large migrations from rural to urban areas. On one hand, a “more aware”, larger middle class was formed (Harati 2016), but according to Abrahamian (1982), Shah’s government did not develop accordingly in the political sphere. People demanded political engagement and freedom but Shah had the dominant control over politics. On the other hand, Shah failed to distribute financial sources to the different classes evenly and his reform plans increased the class gap. The wealth was mainly circulated in the upper class, meaning the royal family and their close circle, while the working class struggled with poverty. Therefore, the rushed modernization plans of Shah from 1953 until the revolution, gave rise to the population of the two groups that challenged him the most: the dissatisfied workers and the middle-class intellectuals (Abrahamian 2008). In 1975 Shah started practicing “one-party state” and openly banned all the political parties and forced his single party (Rastakhiz) with hasty economic changes in the traditional market (Bazar) and culturally shocking rules such as the ban of some religious activities. These changes further pressured the working class and the middle class consisting of intellectuals (sympathizing with nationalist and socialist parties) and Bazar community (traditionally tied with the Islamic clergy) and led them towards protest movements that intensified in the second half of the 1970s and eventually led to Shah’s overthrow. (2008:149-59) The famous slogan of the 1979 revolution, Independence, Freedom, and Islamic Republic, crystalize the core demands of the revolution: independence of the country on a political, economic, and cultural level from the western powers, freedom of speech and political expression, a republic without the centrality of monarchs. Islamic was not initially the orientation of all the groups involved, but in the context of pre-revolution, the rushed modernization and enforcement of western culture oppressed the religion as well and

31 ANALYSIS made the Islamic political theory of Ayatollah Khomeini and Ali Shariati lead the revolution (Abrahamian 2008). The pre-revolution arts reflect on these demands in ways that I review in the following.

4.3 The art and intellectual discourse of the decade before the revolution

After giving a background on the political, social, and economic transformations of Iran in the decades leading to the 1979 revolution, in this part I review the arts and intellectual discourses that had a dynamic relationship with this situation, and within this discourse, the songs that are the core subject of this thesis were born. “The decades of 1960s and 1970s were the most productive years of Iran’s art and culture.” (Moussavi-Aghdam 2014:132). In this period, art and literature moved to modernity and transformed in form and content, and new gen- res and styles, as well as prominent artists, appeared. The reason for this progress lied behind two contradictory factors: one was the state-sponsored cultural developments that opened new windows to the western, modern, and liberal arts and one was the lack of political freedom that caused a backlash against the state cultural policies by the intellectuals. The presence of these two factors in the turbulent socio-political situation of the time resulted in the emergence of art and literature works in the 1960s and the 1970s that were informed from the modern western aesthetics and reflected a sharp political criticism that had to hide behind symbolism to survive the censorship. (Moussavi-Aghdam 2014; Talattof 2000; Vahabzadeh 2015) Pahlavi’s white revolution in the 1960s came along with cultural policies that represented the core idea of his dream modern state: secularization, westernization, and a strong monarchy that strengthens its legitimacy by raising nationalist feelings (focusing on the pre-Islamic Persian cultural heritage) (Gluck 2007). A series of state-sponsored grandiose national spectacles took place to celebrate monarchism, using a syncretic of the Pre-Islamic national elements and the western and modern arts. The Shiraz Festival of Art and Culture was one of these events, in which the most modern world-class theatrical productions were performed side by side the most indigenous forms of Iranian performance (Naficy 1995). Additionally, the special Bureau of

32 ANALYSIS

Queen Farah established in 1959, implemented diverse cultural and art programs such as supporting contemporary Iranian artists, collections of valuable artworks (either Iranian or Euro-American), managing various artistic events and festivals, and the opening of new art galleries and museums. These activities prepared the ground for more active interactions between Iranian and western art and popularizing arts that were claiming to be both national and modern (Gluck 2007; Moussavi-Aghdam 2014). As mentioned in the previous section, the rapid changes of the social and economic structure, resulted in the expansion of a middle class that was en- countered with broader comfort and knowledge, and less political freedom (Abrahamian 1982; Harati 2016). Many of the middle-class intellectuals and artists were sympathized with the opposition parties of the Shah’s regime and were struggling with the censorship. Therefore, as a part of their political con- frontation with Shah, the intellectuals rejected the officially prompted art and culture. (Moussavi-Aghdam 2014) They recognized these cultural forms, as the continuation of colonization and westoxification 1 and regarded the state- sponsored arts as imitative, artificial, irrelevant to the real life of Iranians and an assemblage of parts that do not fit (Naficy 1995; Sandler 1986) They shaped their fighter identity through othering the pro-Western state and em- braced the discourse of Marxism and liberalism as a fight against the monarchy oppression, and the discourse of nativity, focusing on national and Is- lamic cultural roots, as a fight against the rapid up to down westernization. This conflict caused a radically political atmosphere in the art scene (Mous- savi-Aghdam 2014)

4.4 The pre-revolutionary popular music and Tarane-ye Novin

Alongside the other fields of Iranian arts and life, Persian music transformed after 1953 and after the new policies of the Pahlavi’s. “Iranian popular culture changed most radically in the 1960s, when popular music shifted from

1 Westoxification (Gharbzadegi) is a term first introduced by writer Jalal-Al-i-Ahmad in 1962 in his book of the same title. This term referring to the westernization and the loss of Iranian identity was later prompted by Khomeini in theorizing the Islamic revolution. (Talattof 2000)

33 ANALYSIS the styles seen as ‘eastern’ that were prominent in the 1950s to the ‘westerni- zed’ styles that dominated the 1970.” (Breyley 2010:203) In the 1960s, the available forms of Persian music were the following: 1) the classical Persian music with its defined, conservative composition that remained unchanged for centuries, 2)the “mainstream” entertaining music, a mixture of Persian and Arabic traditional dancy rhythms, with humorous and erotic Persian lyrics performed in cabarets, 3) and pop music by the western definition (Breyley 2010; Hemmasi 2020; Nettl 1972). This latter form emerged in the 1960s by young Iranian musicians who brought back interest in western music from their stay abroad. The 3-to-4- minute songs as the standard of western pop music (unlike the Persian classical pieces that are around 10 minutes), were heavily influenced by the North American, Latin American, Western European and Balkan music and were performed with western musical instruments that were new in the Iranian context. But they had traces of Persian music in singing and melodies and instruments, and of course, Persian lyrics (Breyley 2010, Nooshin 2005). The lyrics, that were named ‘Tarane-ye Novin’(novel song) because of their novelty in the context, did not have the sophisticated and complicated language of the classical Persian poetry used in Persian classical music, and not the shallowness and funkiness of the mainstream cabaret music. For the first time, lyrics with “themes of romantic attachment, desire, and despair” (Hemmasi 2013:61) were made that had a decent poetic literality as well as a more accessible informal language. The pop songs sounded foreign to the Iranian audience that was used to the traditional Persian tunes. This music was assumed to be the consumption of the sophisticated upper class (Nettl 1972). However, through the 1960s with more travels and trades between Iran and western countries, and Pah- lavi’s cultural policies, the newly emerged urban sites of leisure like theatres and concert halls and nightclubs let Iranians publicly take part in activities beyond those explicitly approved by Shiite authorities, and musical activities became more incorporated into public life (Meftahi 2017; Rekabtalaei 2018 as cited in Hemmasi 2020). The novel pop songs found popularity; they were sold as records, played on radio programs and on television that was introduced to Iran in 1959. According to Shah’s policy of rapid development in every field as well as culture, television became a vehicle for promoting mod- ernisation with the expansion of imported, western broadcasts and rejection of Iranian traditional culture (Nooshin 2005).

34 ANALYSIS

The appearance of singers in television shows, music videos and magazines, dressed up in youthful modern fashion as icons of the young citizens of the Shah’s dream state benefitting from the expansion of economy and culture, made national icons out of them and for the first time, formed celebrity pop culture (Hemmasi 2020, Nooshin 2005). This music was also accompanying films and musicals called film-farsi, another form of cultural production, emerged and popularized in the 1960s, and this brought more iconicity and popularity to the novel pop songs. (Hemmasi 2013:61)

Figure 2- Two pop singer Figure 2- Popular music singers in icons, Aref and Googoosh on “Rangarang”, a televesion show the cover of a pop magazine broadcasting pop music perfor- in 1973 mances

The novel pop music of the 1960s could be considered as the audio-visual representation of Shah’s modernization policy explained earlier and discon- nected from the reality of most people’s lives (Shay 2000, Nooshin 2005, Breyley 2010). Being syncretic of the western and Iranian cultural elements, this form was a state-sponsored art and highly supported by the royal family and their close circles (Hemmasi 2013) Some opposition intellectuals saw it as westoxification and some like Khomeini, condemned it as cultural colonization, endangering the cultural identity of the youth (Youssefzadeh 2000). It could also be considered as a fantasy, beautiful and happy distraction from the stagnating reality of the time (Hemmasi 2013). According to Crawford’s argument (2009), the defiant pleasures of a temporary indulgence in fantasy make it easier for performers and audiences to return to the ‘real world’, in which they suffer the injustices.

35 ANALYSIS

Nevertheless, this does not mean that this form of music, did not get politicized and expressive of its socio-political context (Breyley 2010; Hemmasi 2020). Starting from the 1970s when the political conflicts were heating, some young pop song producers, used the already state-supported stage provided for pop music and bent the limitations of censorship. They made songs with implicit social and political messages and Tarane-ye Eterazi (protest song) was born.

4.5 The protest songs

Simultaneously with the pop music mentioned above, an underground stream of “guerrilla songs” (Tarane-ha-ye Cheriki) was taking place. Low quality performed and recorded by young guerrilla fighters, with symbols common in the leftist dialect in the lyrics, they were a part of the propaganda of the guerrilla groups and had a limited audience (Malek 2011) But in a middle ground between these ideologically suffocated guerrilla songs and the romantic and glamorous pop music, a series of songs with implicit political references embedded in the form of pop music emerged, that could complete the refusion of the elements of the cultural performance as Alexander (2006) puts it. With a symbolic, easily understandable narrative reflecting on the socio- political turbulence, while using the already popularized form of pop music and culture, these songs got closer to the ritual that can involve the audience to identify itself with and participate in the narrative it is sharing. Shahyar Ghanbari (1950-), a young lyricist who saw the student movements of the 1960s in Europe, came back to Iran and became the first lyricist in Persian pop music who integrated protest messages in the songs. Ghan- bari’s Ghesse-ye Do Mahi (the tale of two fish) released in 1971 is said to be the first, and the beginner of the series of songs with political allegory (Malek 2011) Esfandiar Monfaredzadeh (1941-), Varoujan (1936-1977) and Babak Bayat (1946-2006) were the pioneer composers of the protest songs. In terms of music, apart from being a syncretism of western music and familiar Persian tunes, they were similar to the Greek and Turkish pop music of that time. This is said to be not only because of the geographical and cultural closeness, but also the similarities in the socio-political turbulences of these places on the path of modernization (Breyley 2010).

36 ANALYSIS

In the Iranian protest songs lyrics are central and music is a means for carrying words, but the music still carries factors of impact. In many songs of Monfaredzadeh, such as Jome(Friday), Sale ghahti (The year of Famine), Shabane 2 (Nocturnal 2) or Gharyeye man (my village), a simple, but catchy melody theme that opens the song and repeats between the verse lines is whistled. This makes the melody iconic and memorable as it can be simply performed by anyone, anywhere. The use of sound effects for creating atmosphere is another musical inno- vation that Monfaredzadeh claims he has done for the first time in Iranian music, with the song Shabane 2(Nocturnal 2), in which the sound effects of shooting, military marching, wolf howls, sounds of a village and owl hoo are used to imply the feared and militarist atmosphere. The song also starts with the unrecognizable murmuring of a group that Monfaredzadeh explains was a way to show “a scared society in which people are not free to speak out” (Monfaredzadeh 2012).

Figure 3-The original cover art of the vinyl record of Shabane 2. On the cover, the song is dedicated to the socially committed writers of the time: Dr.Sanaei Zadeh, Ghoamhossein Saedi, Esmaeil Khoie

The main singers of the protest songs were Farhad Mehrad(1944-2002), Fereydoon Foroughi (1951-2001), Dariush(1951-) and Googoosh(1950-). Except for Googoosh who was already popular from the 1960s, these singers were introduced with the protest songs and earned their popularity for their distinctive voice and singing style. The three male voices, Farhad, Fereydoon, and Dariush, with a background in covering English and American rock, blues and jazz, started singing Persian lyrics in the 1970s (Etemadi 2011, Da- rolshafayi 2012, Zinatbakhsh 2001 & 2004) Therefore, their voice was deep, manly, rough as the rock singers and their singing was empty of ornaments

37 ANALYSIS

(tahrir) common in the persian classical singing. Ears of Iranians found their voice unpleasant at first but through the 1970s, as the political atmosphere was drumming, the popularity of these voices proved that they suited best for representing the protesting shout. In the eyes of the public audience, they were not seen as individual artists but rather the representative figures of the protest time. The political activism of the musicians, is also important as it shows “the social movement is objectified and embodied in their art” and their characters (Eyerman and Jamison 1998:12).

Figure 4- (right to left) Hassan Figure 5- (right to left) Farhad singer, Shamaei Zadeh, Ardalan Safaraz, Shahyar Ghanbari lyricist, and Esfan- Farhad and Varoujan, protest music diar Monfaredzadeh composer of pro- artists test songs

However, the lyrics beared the protest narrative and a bigger share of the influence of these songs. It is through the lyrics, that we can observe the dynamics of background script making through a world of symbols and dramatic and rhetorical devices that enhance the participatory effect of the songs. The pioneering protest lyricists were Shahyar Ghanbari (1950-), Iraj Jannati Atayi(1947-) and Ardalan Sarfaraz(1950-). Farhad says that these lyrics were continuing the way of Aref Qazvini, the first poet who wrote political and social instead of romantic themes in song lyrics at the time of the Constituti- onal revolution (Darolshafayi 2012). But these songs are a branch of the Ira- nian new poetry movement (Khoshnam 2012); they share the ideologic and formal achievements and sources of insipiration with the new poetry movement, some of the poems are directly used as songs in this era. (ex: Shabane [nocturnal] by Ahmad Shamloo, Vahdat[unity] by Siavash Kasraei), and the

38 ANALYSIS musicians had a close relationships with committed poets and writers and dedicated some some songs to them (figure 3). In the following section, I look at the relationship between the new poetry movement and the protest songs.

4.6 Pre-revolutionary protest poetry and lyrics

To better understand the significant role of lyrics in shaping the collective representation of social movements in Iran, we must refer to the special place of poetry in Iran’s society. There is a unique affinity between Iranians and poetry. Iran’s poetry advanced from the 10th century with poets such as Ferdowsi (10th century), Khayyam (11th century), Nezami Ganjavi (12th century), Molana (Rumi), Saadi (13th century) and Hafez (14th century). With these poets, poetry reached great literary achievements and seeped into Ira- nian culture and daily life. As Manoukian (2010) points, Iranians express a “profound connection between poetry and experience, to the extent that many Iranians consider poetry the discourse that enshrines their es- sence”(2010:250). The presence of poetry in Iranian daily life is manifested in quotations of poems within Farsi conversation, poetry education in school curriculum, poetry on tiles as decorative elements in Iranian architecture, and the practice of fortune-telling (Faal) that makes poetry books inseparable objects in the Persian celebrations. “In the middle east, where poems are often recited, poetry is a simultaneously oral/aural and literate form that contributes to diverse publics and serves a critical function in social and political life” (Caton 1990; Abu- Lughod 1999; Miller 2007 as cited in Hemmasi 2013:59). The strategies of ambiguity and indirection have long been present in public communications of marginalized groups. Using indirect signification in popular songs that imply coded and subversive messages, communally interpreted by audiences and undetected by censorship function is a practice of resistance (Averill 1997) The literary technic of ambiguity, vagueness, and indirection in poetry to signal the poet’s political criticism, was present in Persian poetry since Hafez. Virtually every Iranian government since the mid-1800s has employed

39 ANALYSIS censors, a practice that developed vague and coded language in poetry. Yet, it was in modern Iran after world war two, that Persian poetry was revolutio- nized in form and content to move side by side with soical and political turbulences more than ever in the literature history (Karimi-Hakkak 1990). Nima Yushij (1897–1959), the pioneer of Sher-e No (new poetry) revolu- tionized the tradition of Persian classical poetry form by using blank verse for the first time. He used nature-related symbols and metaphors to build allego- ries of the social situation (Talattof 2000). Ahmad Shamlu (1925–2000) and Mehdi Ahkavan Sales (1928–1990) took Nima’s poetic innovations further; they made sharp political criticism through describing the oppressed society and praising freedom in a blend of lyrical and social commitment (Karimi- Hakkak 1977, 1997) The dominant discourse in arts starting from the 1940s by these pioneers of new poetry suggested that arts must commit to reflect the social and political situation (Karimi-Hakkak 1977; Sandler 1986) The birth of poetic modernity was happening simultaneously with fast social and political transformations in Iran that on one hand, implanted collective visions for a modern, just and free Iran to flourish, but on the other hand, oppressed political ex- pressions. Therefore, the poetic modernization became associated with social commitment and “poetic self-consciousness in the Iranian experience was ac- companied by political self-consciousness.” (Vahabzadeh 2015:107) This is manifest to Eyerman and Jamison’s view (1998), that during the social movements the categories of artistic merits change due to the change of the evaluation criteria, and arts get politicized to embody the collective, visionary project of civil rights. It is noteworthy, that for a short time in the mid-1970s, due to the fear of Shah from the reflection of SAVAK actions as human right violations in the international media, the political oppression on intellectuals loosened (Abra- hamian 2008). That is when the association of writers (kanoon-e nevisan- degan) that was formed in 1968 to give a legal charachter to writer’s fight with censorship, curated an underground event in 1977 called “the ten nights of poetry”. This event became the hub of writers and intellectuals for sharing their opposition ideas and organizing the revolution (Abrahamian 2008; San- dler 1986). This pressure lift provided the “free space” that the actors of a social movement can use to give a more defined form to their protest. A free space, either physical or symbolic, is an opening within the framework of society

40 ANALYSIS where people are allowed to criticize the dominant culture within acceptable limits (Eyerman and Jamison 1998; Pratt 1990). As well as the temporary lift of the censorship shortly before the revolution, the state’s support for the expansion of arts and culture can be noticed as the free space, from which the artists and intellectuals took advantage for excelling their artwork while tele- porting their message of political dissatisfaction. In the 1960s, the notion of commitment was rebellioned by the romantic, personal poetry of Forough Farrokhzad (1935–67) and Sohrab Sepehri (1928–80) and shortly after by the new wave (moj-no) and she’r-e hajm (Espacementalisme). Nevertheless, by the mid-1960s and inspired by the rebellious actions of People’s Fadayi guerrillas (Fadayian-e khalq), and Peo- ple’s Mojahedin (Mojahedin-e-khalq) a group of poets once again bolded social commitment by shaping protest or “guerilla poetry”. Integrating the tre- asures of the previous poets such as symbolism, romanticism, and imagery, this poetry signaled the virtue of being socially sensible and rebellious (Va- habzadeh 2015). The hybrid of all these poetry movements was committed, protesting and symbolic poetry that pervaded the 1970s, and the lyrics of the protest pop songs of this decade inhabited in this tradition (Khoshnam 2010). In a simple layer, the interaction between the protest poetry and lyrics is seen in the use of some of the poems of the important poets directly as lyrics of songs. But in a deeper layer of analysis, the songs are a continuation of the system of symbolism, natural and romantic imagery, exaggeration, and rhetorical devices that the new poetry movement established for depicting political criticism. Well-constructed symbols cloaking on a sharp protest language, visions of heroic political actions, praising core concepts of freedom and justice were features of the 1970s poetry. The more artistic, private, complex, and nature- inspired symbolism of previous poets like Nima, transformed to more easily read codes to show the brutal reality of oppression and fight, and that draws a fine line between good and bad. As Vahabzadeh (2015) writes, the actions of guerilla parties of Fadayian and Mojahedin, and especially the Siahkal incident2, became an important

2 A month after the celebration of 2500 years of monarchy in Iran, and as a reaction to that, in February 1971 a team of 6 guerillas attacked a gendermary in Siahkal, Guilan. With a quick court decision, 13 of them were executed and the security service proudly

41 ANALYSIS inspiration and referent point in poetry. The Siahkal operation was reflected in an epic and poetic way by the artists and intellectuals who were waiting for a bold act. The image of self-less, fearless guerillas inside mysterious jungles, fighting for justice and freedom with their lives, became the source of inspiration for a generation of poetry and art. In pop music, the song Jome (Friday), is instantly linked to the Siahkal event in the memory of people. This song, describing the gloomy Friday in which “blood is dripping from the clouds instead of rain” was released shortly after the event, and was dedicated to the deads of Siahkal, that also happened on a Friday (Ghadiri and Moinzadeh 2011). All the national and liberal movements of the 1960s and 1970s were informed by a pre-given antagonism (coming from Marxian contradiction of la- bors and capitalism) between people (khalq) in contrast with the enemies of people (zedd-e-khalq). The core of this poetry genre is a political allegory using strong symbols and binary codes to divide these two opposing forces (Vahabzadeh 2015). In the poem’s narrative, hope/light wins dispair/night, the masses/the potential protagonists fight in this war, and the poet is/wants to be a fighter. The poem provides an active interaction with the reader in which they can empathize with the protagonist. The fusion of the elements of the cultural performance can make the poetry a mobilizing ritual when the poem can call the audience for participation, and let them identify themselves as a collective protagonist (Alexander 2006; Reed 2005). The social performance needs a “system of collective representation”, a world of “signifiers” that frame the concerns of society. This system is based on binary relations that define the good and bad, the sacred and the profane, with the employment of rhetorical devices such as symbols and metaphors (Alexander 2006). The main motif in the 1970s poetry is the metaphorical struggle between natural phenomena such as day and night, and winter and spring. Naturally, there is no conflict between day and night since they are just in contrast as a natural phenomenon, but using this binary to depict a political position, shows a sharp, black and white simplification of the opposition that is in fact very dynamic (Naficy 1997).

announced it in TV. Ten days later guerrillas killed the general Zia Farsiu responsible for the death sentences.(Abrahamian 1982)

42 ANALYSIS

The protest literature of the 1970s established new signifier-signified relationships. It used signifiers from daily language, representing a signified that is unconventional in the usual poetry but unequivocally refers the socio-political narrative of the time. A part of these newly used signifiers, such as red, khalq (people), star, etc. was common in the dialect of leftist, revolutionary dissidents. Another part was signifiers that were previously used in poetry, and even though the poem could be interpreted independently of the social/political meaning, the repeated usage of the same set of signifiers in the poetry within the context of that time established a certain interpretation of them. When we all agree that, for example, the mountain stands for the un- conquerable soul of the militant, the river signifies the process of finding meaning in life, which leads us to the greater collective (the sea), the swamp becomes where all the blissful dramas of life are drawn in to stag- nate (thanks to the powers that be), the star reminds us of our ideals, and the tulip represents the bygone soul that tried to reach the star – this is precisely when symbolism crumbles. (Vahabzadeh 2015: 118)

Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak (1991) writes new poets drew on “literary ambiguity [and] linguistic polysemy” to “conceal the ontological simplicity of such images as ‘night,’ ‘winter,’ ‘walls,’ and ‘chains,’” which were among the most often employed terms signaling “the actual social condition” under the Shah regime (1991:508). As Vahabzadeh (2015) observes, this literature captured the imagination of a generation, by letting them participate in the political act through the experience of reading/hearing poetry. A world of signifiers and allegorical narratives, that are commonly understood as part of a political narrative, ren- ders the struggle of a collective(people) that everyone could identify with against evil (the forces of oppression). Despite all that was said about the socio-historical reference of the poetry, the narrative that the poems/lyrics provide is still vague and ambiguous. The open-endedness of poetry as the cultural form of the movement makes it more effective in building the collective representation than the ideology itself. The piece that is not attached to a specific time and space, becomes a mythical narrative that embeds the core values and can be adopted in any historical moment and raise the same shared meanings. (Alexander 2006; Eyerman and Jamison 1998; Reed 2005)

43 ANALYSIS

The vagueness and time/space-lessness are even more at work in song lyrics than in poetry because the audience of pop music, with an average lower intellectual privilege, are less able to see the political historical contexts and orientations in which the song was produced and consume music as an entertaining activity. Thus, they can receive the shared meaning and feel from the song directly. With this passage, I move to the features of song and music that make it a more effective tool than poetry, for building collective representation in the social movements.

4.7 The stronger effect of songs compared to poetry

In the 1970s Iran, the transformation of the protest poetry into pop lyrics enhanced the effect of their protest narrative and eased their way to become a script for collective action. The reason is the nature of music and especially pop music in fusing the elements of the ritual that a cultural performance in social movements need. As mentioned in the theory and literature review chapter, music is a vital force in social movements. By raising shared emotion, meaning, and memories, music reinforces solidarity. The music of the protest and social movements specifically, embodies the ideas of the movement and builds a suggestive script for feeling and acting upon it, and it can energize the society towards a specific collective action. In the 1960s Iran, pop music was given a “free space” by the state for artistic expression, mass mediation, and circulation. Mass mediation and high levels of circulation are two critical factors in popular music’s dissemination of politics to various publics (Hemmasi 2013). Eyerman and Jamison (1998) also mention the importance of new technologies as the free space that can give the movement actors an opportunity to organize. In the context of Iran, the newly introduced technology of television and radio shows, the films and musicals using pop songs as soundtracks, the celebrity and pop culture-orien- ted magazines, and the opening of scenes for musical practice such as cabarets and nightclubs, all contributed to the pop music mass circulation and helped pop music become a part of people’s lives.

44 ANALYSIS

From the 1970s, pop music used the already established platform to embody the new ideas for a movement. As Alexander (2006) argues, the authen- ticity of a movement’s background script is a result of using an already existing background culture that has established meanings for people and incor- porating the core visions and ideas of the movement in it. Therefore, pop music in that specific era, became the best container of the movement ideas as its genre and musicians found their place among people. While the consumption of the new poetry was available to the intellectua- lly privileged ones, songs made the poetry more accessible for people of all classes and different literacy levels. It is through the music, that as Eyerman and Jamison (1998) argue, the movement ideas can be “conveyed to the illi- terate and to the literates who are deeply rooted in the oral tradition” (1998:37). The people who may have never read a poem from Shamloo or Nima, have heard Googoosh, Farhad, Fereydoon, and other singers and they know the iconic lyrics by heart and can also indicate the political meaning references.

Jom’eh is unique in listeners’ consistent linking of it to a specific historical event; far more common is the interpretation that these songs gave voice to widespread frustrations and hopelessness felt by many Iranians in response to a lack of political freedoms, even if the songs’ lyrics did not directly cite the source of this suffering (Hemmasi 2013).

Even though the songs did not directly refer to any special event, but the song’s effect, the reputation of its songwriters and their political activity, and the rumors around the song’s intentions, and their struggles with censorship, were spread among people that were following pop culture, and the political context of the period gave audience reasons to look for hidden subversive messages in the songs. In the protest music of the 1970s making a narrative that meets the elements of an effective script of cultural performance, while drawing upon the elements and concepts that were already familiar and established in the culture, tradition, and discourse of the time, made this music a process of collective meaning and identity-forming.

45 ANALYSIS

4.8 Songs as scripts for a cultural performance

Alexander (2006) argues what mobilizes people towards a collective movement, is the fusion of the elements of a cultural performance. The success of the cultural performance is its ability to pass the core ideas of the suffering and demand to the audience, to the extent that they self-identify as part of this narrative. Therefore, the cultural performance needs to build and reinforce a collective representation, that can solidarize the audience through planting and strengthening shared meanings. An effective script takes the conflict scenario of the context, and “changes the proportions and increases the intensity of it with the use of dramatic technics” (2006:59). The dramatic technics, just like a theatrical script are 1) cognitive simplification of an ideology by repeated and careful explanation, stereotype making, melodramatic exaggeration as well as rhetorical devices like simile, tropes, and metaphors, 2) time and space compression 3) moral agonism (a conflict between the good and evil, applying binary codes of sacred and profane to describe the protagonist and the antagonist, and 4)twist and turns of the narrative. I claim that the protest lyrics of the 1970s used the same dramatic technics to make a script-like narrative that represent the social and political situation to the audience and let them identify with the protagonist. I identified a narrative in the lyrics, that starts with a description of the society’s atmosphere. Using urban life elements and conversational language, the songs imply closeness and familiarity with the audience, while not limiting the narrative to a specific time and place. This description uses literary devices and dramatic exaggeration, to describe a depressed, stagnated, oppressed state in which dreams, hopes, freedom, and justice are dead. This depression that the narrator is describing, is not just a personal one, rather the narrator/protagonist is victimized by an external force. There is an antagonism between the protagonist, the good, and an antagonist, the evil that is indirectly and vaguely described with similes and metaphors. Then, the narrative makes a twist, from a state of despair and hopelessness to a solidarizing call for action and change. This part comes simultaneously with a change of the music rhythm (a bridge) and the change of the narrator from the first person to the plural pronoun. Here the song invites the audience to self-realization as protagonists, and sorrow that is already accumulated

46 ANALYSIS through the first part now finds an opportunity to transform into rage, exci- tement, and motion. The narrative then guides the emotions towards hope in the last part: within another set of symbols contrary to the ones used for the description of the present, the song embodies visions, ideals, and desires for a possibly better, freer future. Even though this narrative can be interpretable within the social, political, and intellectual discourse of the 1970s when they were made, it is a simple narrative of being under oppression and wishing for change, with ambiguous and vague symbolism. Therefore, it is independent of a specific time and place and open to interpretation in any historical moment. It is noteworthy, that based on my observations, songs differ in the intensity of focus on each of these four parts. Some songs written by Shahyar Ghanbari, and performed by male singers with rough voices like Farhad, Fereydoon Foroughi and Dariush, are richer in the description of the situation and complaining about the “evil”, with a demand for change. These songs are closer to an easy read political allegory. While songs of Iraj Jannati Atayi and Ardalan Sarafraz mainly performed by the female singer icon Googoosh, use a more romantic, private, and poetical language to admire the “good” ideals, such as freedom, purity and love and the wishful desire for getting to them. To make the narrative visible, I will break some of the songs of the 1970s, and reassemble them within the four parts mentioned above: 1)the description of the situation, 3) the antagonism between protagonist with an ambiguous enemy, 3)the call for change and movement, 4)the visions of the desired state.

4.8.1 The description of the situation

The beginning part of the songs, the first one or two verses and the chorus, describe the present situation, using metaphors, characterization, imagery, and poetical exaggeration to show an oppressed and unjust society, and set a depressed, stagnated atmosphere. The words city, alleys, houses, and other urban elements, set the locations of the songs, showing that the song is talking about “our society” and “our lives”.

Alleys are narrow, shops are shut

47 ANALYSIS

Houses are dark, roofs are collapsed Tars and violins are reduced to silence dead bodies are being shouldered, alley to alley. (Shabane 2 [Nocturnal 2])

Night with its characteristics such as darkness, shadow, cold, is used as the time of the song to set a fearful, dark and ambiguous scene for the narrative. As discussed before, night had a special role in the protest poetry of the 1970s, and the conflict of day and night, was a uniquovocal symbol for the conflict of good and evil, the oppression and freedom, the ignorance and enlightment:

A rain-soaked owl is shouting in the alley A person dies under a tall wall Who knows what’s going on in the dark heart of the night The captives of the night are chained to sorrow My heart is exhausted of the darkness All the doors are shut at me I became the captive of the night shadows Night became the captive of the cold net of the sky I have to go with the shadows step by step Have to pass the madness city by city (Asire Shab [The Captive of Night])

As we can witness, an exaggerated despair and hopelessness is set in the atmosphere of a spooky night. Rain and dense clouds, not only set a gloomy scene, but are also methaphors for crying, and black clothes refer to the color of funerals in Jome(Friday), a song that was inspired by the Siahkal event and the killing of the guerillas in the jungles:

In the wet frame of these windows, I see a picture of the sad Friday How black is the mourning clothes on it, I see dense clouds in its eyes (Jome[Friday])

This mourning is for the unjust killing of the freedom fighters, or for the death of freedom and justice as concepts, or for all this society of protagonists (people) that are victimized. The words of deads, blood, the mourne the martyrs in these songs suggest this message:

Alleys are narrow, shops are closed Houses are dark, roofs are collapsed

48 ANALYSIS

Tars and violins are reduced to silence Dead bodies are shouldered, alley to alley .... Look! The dead are not like the dead, not even like a candle in the throes of death They are like an oil lamp which is put out but not for [running out of] oil, there’s still a lot of oil in it! (Shabane 2 [Nocturnal 2])

Blood is dripping from the black cloud On Fridays blood is dripping, instead of rain (Jome[Friday])

Mard-e Tanha (lonely man), is a minimal narrative of the tragic death of a lonely man in the night. The lonely man represents the suffering of a normal man, oppressed, thirsty, tired and deprived who dies in search of hope symbolized in water, and footstep :

With a silent voice/ tall like a mountain/ short like a dream/ there was a man, a man With poor hands/ with deprived eyes with tired legs/ there was a man, a man Night, with a black coffin/ sat in his eyes The star was put off, fell on the earth With thirsty lips/ for the image of a spring he did not arrive to see/ drop drop drops of water In the still night/ this side and that side he was falling/ to hear the sound the sound the sound of footsteps

While Mard-e Tanha, shows the theme of deprivation in the single person protagonist, some songs like Najva(whisper) show it as a collective feeling using the plural pronoun:

Growable things are not a few, you and I were low though Dry and withered and bent to the ground Sayable things are not a few/ you and I said little though Like the delusions before death, we said nonsense from the start Observable things are not a few, we saw little though For no reason, we asked the birthplace of flowers from the autumn Pickable things are not a few, you and I picked a few though When the flower of love was blossoming on the carpet weaver,

49 ANALYSIS

For no reason, we were scared to even throw a red rose. (Najva[whisper])

In this song, the poet uses binary structure, to depict the deprivation of the protagonists (us) of the good things, a deprivation caused by fear. The contrast between growth, flowers, blossom, red rose with the dry, withered, bent, death, autumn, depicts the distance of the present state of the protagonists from the ideals. Sometimes, the narrator observes a deprivation, disorder, and famine in the society all around her/him:

The flowerpots gave no flowers/ nothing grew on the trees/ Sheep and cows didn’t give yogurt and cheese/ Whatever I said to anyone, nobody answered me The wheat plants of the fields didn’t give a piece of bread/ water springs in the tunnels didn’t give a drop of water. (Sale Ghahti [Year of Famine])

These many codes related to famine and drought symbolically draw the picture of a society that is drained and infertile. This refers to the oppression that implants fear and holds back the growth of new thoughts and ideas. It can also refer to material poverty, indirectly pointing to the unfair distribution of wealth and the gap between the working and the upper class. In the last sen- tence of this quoted song, and also this line from Mard-e Tanha (lonely man):

With thirsty lips/ for the image of a spring/ he did not arrive to see/ drop drop drops of water

, we see the binary of thirst/water, symbolizing poverty and wealth not only an economical one but in a broader sense a deprivation of the society from the potent pure ideals. The oppression, the strangulation of freedom and people are implied by the repetitive signifiers like captive, chain, net, prison, wall. In Yare Dabest- nai-e Man (My schoolmate), society is symbolized as a primary school. This allegory in part raises a sense of affinity and companionship as the song calls the audience “my schoolmate” and uses first-person plural pronoun (you and I/ we), and in part refers to the primary school as the place where the kids for the first time experience the power domination, control, punishment and fear (Leone 2012). In this school, people (the names of me and you) are engraved in the solid darkness and hostility of a blackboard, and the students(us) are

50 ANALYSIS beaten by the twig of injustice and oppression, and as a result not only we remained uncultured but turned into weed and deadhearted people:

My schoolmate, you are with me and accompany me The A stick hits us on the head, you are my sob and my sigh My name and yours are engraved on this blackboard The twig of injustice and oppression, has left marks on our bodies The field of our unculturedness, its grass has turned into weed Good or bad, the hearts of its people are dead (Yare Dabestnaie Man [My schoolmate])

Mordaab (swamp) uses a different allegory to depict the despair of being imprisoned. This song is the story of a young water spring, that dreamed to become the biggest sea, but lost its way in the desert, and is now a swamp, half-dead, chained to the earth, and is drying:

In the middle of a naked field under the desert’s sun there is an old swamp stuck in the hands of the earth I am that old swamp separated from the whole world the heat of the sun on my body, chained to the earth I am the one who wanted to become the sea one day I wanted to become the biggest sea in the world I hoped to go get to the sea burn the night to get to tomorrow ... Now became a swamp, a half-dead captive from one side I’m going to the earth, one side to the sky

Sea is also one of the natural symbols that its common use in the committed literature of the pre-revolution, made its signified commonly recognizable. Sea is the ultimate dream of freedom, limitlessness and trancendance. Here the contrast of the swamp with codes like stuck, dry, chained, half-dead, captive with the dream of becoming the biggest sea in the world, shows the distance of the protagonist from the ideal. (I will later come back to the sea metaphor)

51 ANALYSIS

In Do Panjere(two windows), the protagonists are two windows (window is associated with light, hope, new insights) that are imprisoned in a stone wall:

In a stone wall, two windows are imprisoned two exhausted, two lonesomes, one of them is you, the other is me the wall is made of black stone, stone so hard, so cold [the stone barrier between us] has put the stamp of silence, on our exhausted lips (Do Panjere [Two Windows]) Like the last line of the song quoted above, silence, sealed lips, the silenced voice/shouts, shouting with closed lips are repeated in many songs, as codes to imply the frustration and the lack of freedom of speech:

Anyone gets tired of themselves, and shouts with sealed lips. (Jome[Fri- day])

A damned bird is struggling behind my heart’s wall In the tired cold vessels of my body, the fear of death is beating.(Asire Shab [The Captive of Night])

With a soundless voice, tall as a mountain, short as a dream, there was a man a man. (Mard-e tanha[lonely man])

But what is represented in the songs as the cause of this suffocating situation? We shall explore it in the next part of the narrative.

52 ANALYSIS

Table 2 - Codes describing the current situation

4.8.2 The antagonism between the protagonist and an ambiguous enemy

This hopelessness and depression described above, have not emerged out of the blue. The songs point out to an external force, an enemy, an antagonist that is causing this situation for the collective protagonists. This antagonist is not defined elaborately, it is rather a symbolic icon that represents an evil force in opposition with the protagonist. The ambiguity of the antagonist signifiers is of course a tool for escaping censorship, and leaves space for subversive interpretation in any context.

53 ANALYSIS

As mentioned earlier, the protest literature used contrasting natural elements to allegorize the political conflict. This technic provides the cognitive simplification, necessary for an effective script for cultural performance (Al- exander 2006), by simplifying the grey political relationships to a black and white binary (Naficy 1997). In the songs, the antagonism of natural elements such as day/night, winter/spring, water/evaporation, domestic animals/prey animals, symbolize the agony of people and an oppressive force. The struggle of the protagonist with the night was reviewed in the songs Asir-e Shab (captive of the night and Mard-e Tanha (lonely man) earlier. In this song called Shabane 1 (nocturnal 1), the narrator idealizes the moon as a hero (because it is the biggest source of light in the night sky), dreaming for it to come one night and take him to a place where hope, happiness and light exist:

One night, the moon will come to my dream It will take me from one alley to another To a vineyard, to a plum garden Valley to valley, desert to desert To where at nights, behind the plains A fairy comes, scared and trembling Puts her foot in the spring water, combs her hair One night, the moon will come to my dream It will take me deep into that valley Where a lonely willow, happy and hopeful Brings its hand forward gracefully Till a star drops like a raindrop And hangs from its branch instead of fruits. (Shabane 1 [Nocturnal 1])

In Mordab (swamp), we observed the conflict in a natural phenomenon: a swamp and the hot sun evaporating it and the dry earth sucking it in. The symbolic antagonism between the domestic/prey animals can be seen in Ghesse-ye Do Mahi (the tale of two fish). This song is a simple allegory that resembles children’s stories. The protagonists are two fish that are living hap- pily until a cruel pelican hunts one of them:

We were two fish, in the dark sea free of salty tears, free of the worry of what there is and there’s not …

54 ANALYSIS

until when the pelican came and killed my other half I wish its heart would burn, the heart of that damned thing It’s my turn now, I see its shadow on the water. The narrator then says, this is going to affect everyone as well as us, so she wishes to get hunted sooner to get free and at least live in the memories:

After us it’s the turn of the other spouses It’s going to be the day of the ugly death of other loves God please make it (the pelican) not forget That there is a fish waiting underwater I don’t want to be alone, I don’t want to be a fish in the water I like to be in the tales from now on (Ghesse-ye Do Mahi [the tale of two fish])

In Tangna (impasse), the narrator is describing a personal and collective depression, disorder, and detachment at first:

Rain is pouring lighter than the clouds Everyone is only caring about themselves I have hidden in my shell like a turtle, no one takes my heart away anymore The fish is fallen out of the pool, the wings of the butterflies are wounded

And then, suspecting the cause of all this chaos, the song asks a symbolic question, indirectly pointing to the attack of the enemy of people:

To the herd of our sheep, has a wolf come by?

The song Gonjishgake Ashimashi (The Sparrow of Ashimashi), brings the symbolic antagonism closer to the political struggle of people and the state, by picturing the antagonist as a human ruler (sir lord), that is in the position of power and authority.

Little sparrow of ashimashi, don’t land on our rooftop It rains, you will get wet, it snows you will turn into a ball you will fall in the painter’s pool (of paint) Who will catch you? Sir Chamberlain Who will kill you? Sir butcher Who will cook you? Sir Cook Who will eat you? Sir Lord.

55 ANALYSIS

This was an old children’s song (matal), until Monfaredzadeh composed music on it in 1972, and Farhad performed it. Even though the song was circulated in the oral culture for years, but the protesting reputation of the composer and the singer, as well as the movie Gavazn-ha (deers) that this song was its soundtrack, gave this short song a new identity as a political allegory. The little sparrow is a freedom fighter, escaping from the forces chasing it. These forces that are obviously higher in the hierarchy and belong to the royalty that might catch, butcher and cook it to serve to the highest authority, the lord. The composer Monfaredzadeh, the composer of this song recalls from the interrogations of SAVAK, that their main question was, who did you mean by the Sir lord (Etemadi 2011). Even though this implication can be understood as a symbol for the opposition of people/protagonists with the Shah/antagonist and his oppressing government that serves to his dictatorship in the context of the pre-revolution, it is still a vague narrative of oppression applicable to any time and place. But some songs, make clearer connections between the antagonist figure and Mo- hammadreza Shah (and the general dissatisfactions of his time such as western economic and cultural colonization, poverty and class gap, and inforced modernization). In the following songs, “Our society”, the protagonist’s land, is put in contrast with an ambiguous figure that has brought unwanted changes to this land and has ruined it. In this song, the dream (the ideal) of the narrator, is his “village”, imaged with codes of old, in shadow (forgotten in a corner), yet beautiful, delightful and intimate, with some religious symbols (worshiping the spring) proving its purity and sacredness. On the contrary, the antagonist is described as, steel, a cold feast coming from hell, setting fire, stealing the spring:

My dream is an old village, in a handful of shadows, but intimate My village instead of steel, worshiped the spring My village, nice and intimate, delightful and beautiful, like an old poem But a cold hand, Came from hell, set my village on fire With a feast full of steel, stole the spring, took it to the shadows, gave it to the sun (evaporated it). (Gharyeye Man [My village])

56 ANALYSIS

In the following song, that got the composer, the lyricist and the singer arrested after its release (Etemadi 2013), the narrator is putting itself and its land in contrast with an ambiguous figure, using a lot of binary codes: infected/fragile, tribe/city, east/west, night/velvet skin, blisters/panther mink, a tiny room/skycrapers, soil/wheat spray, fine clothes(monetary wealth)/ prayer and (mosque)domes (indicating spiritual wealth)

I belong to the pestilence infected tribe of east But you are this fragile traveler of the city of west My skin is of the night material, your skin is of red velvet My clothes are of blisters, your outfit is of panther mink .... You're thinking of a forest of steel and skyscrapers I'm thinking of a room as big as you to sleep My body is my soil, the wheat spray is your body Our bodies are the thirstiest of thirsty for a drop of water Your city, city of the west, its people with fine clothes My city, city of prayers, with all its domes in gold (Booye khoob Gandom [The good smell of wheat])

Even though the codes describing the protagonist sound negative compa- ring to the codes for the protagonist, the narrator prefers his own state since it is rather native, original, attached to him, spiritual and sacred. The song is visibly pointing to the opposition discourse of its time: a combination of Mar- xist, nationalist and Islamist‘s fight against rapid modernization and westernization that has caused exploitation and poverty for the normal hardworking people, and the alternative tenancy for going back to nativity and original identity. The song links the identity of the narrator to the working class (far- mers) and points to the exploitation when it repeats this chorus:

Let the smell of wheat be mine, everything I've got be yours This few inches of land be mine, everything I plant be yours

The narrator suggests, that he can let go of the economic outcome of his work (wheat, everything I plant), but he wants to keep his cultural, spiritual, and national identity (the smell of wheat, the few inches of land). In the following part, we can see the tenancy of the song for change and solutions.

57 ANALYSIS

Table 3 - Binary codes describing the antagonism

Skyscrapers

4.8.3 The call for movement and change

Up to this point, the songs prepared an overwhelming picture of reality and accumulated sadness and frustration. Some songs finish here, but in some, there is a moment of change in the middle towards the end of the song ac- companied by a change in the music. After two verses and chorus spent on describing the present situation, in the bridge where there is a change in the rhythm and a higher pitch of the singer’s voice, the songs shift the focus on “what now”? The narrator states the need for a solution, a movement:

58 ANALYSIS

People! I am not patient anymore!(Shabane 2 [Nocturnal 2])

Friday is the time to leave, the season of forsaking (Jome[Friday])

A wish for change:

Oh I wish this wall would fall apart (Do Panjere [Two Windows])

Or a call out to the passivity audience:

Hey you dead people! (Sale Ghahti [Year of Famine])

Hey you forgetful man! (Shabane 1 [Nocturnal 1])

This change from a description by a single first-person pronoun, to the direct addressing of the audience with a plural second person-pronoun (you), is an overt invitation for motion, change, and participation. It works like a slap in the face of the audience that is already dipped in a passive depression. The song pokes at the people who are passive, unaware, ignorant and indiffe- rent or too scared, with binary codes of drunk/aware, asleep/awake, dead/alive.

Hey you dead people, fear has taken your guts away why are you silent? As if a dog ate your guts ... Enough with sitting in silence, keeping doors of the houses closed Cutting affection with everybody, making no bound with anyone Come on get up and fight, with these embarrassing days What’s the point if here, we will not be even able to laugh? (Sale Ghahti [Year of Famine])

Hey forgetful man! Hey you filled with hatred Are you drunk or aware? Are you asleep or awake? (Shabane2[Nocturnal2])

In Booye Khoobe Gandom (the good smell of wheat), after the binary description of the eastern, exploited land and a western antagonist, the narrator comes to a moment of realization to change the game:

59 ANALYSIS

I shouldn't be mourning for the soil of my body You are the traveler and I'm the blood and vein of here My body doesn't like to be bruised by your hand Now along with anyone present [and] not I shout: LET THE SMELL OF WHEAT BE MINE, EVERYTHING I'VE GOT BE MINE THIS FEW INCHES OF LAND BE MINE, EVERYTHING I PLANT BE MINE

After this call, the first or third person pronouns (I, it), transform into plural first person (we). This transformation is an important moment that manifests the effect of music in linking the individual with the collective identity as Reed (2005) mentions it: at this moment, an individual discovers his/her self through the social movement, as a part of a whole, a collective spirit, and a sense of solidarity and involvement follows (2005:33). Now the narrator suggests that we must do something for a change, as we are responsible for our destiny:

My hands and yours must rip these curtains who can heal our pain except for us? (Yare Dabestnaie Man[My schoolmate])

In Najva (whisper), after that binary structure in the first half of the song showing the deprivation of the protagonists (you and I) from the blessings of life, the song suggests that with our presence in the movement, in the square can be a beating pulse and with solidarity (being together), we can take our right back: You and I were low [on many things] But now you and I in the squares Will sing as much as we deserve Will see as much as we deserve, Will say as much as we deserve ... You and I must be not bent, not low, not messed, but together! You and I deserve, in the night of this movement, to be the [beating] pulse of the man You and I deserve, to be together at least as much as we can

60 ANALYSIS

The wish for change, and the burning desire for moving towards freedom, are not always directly ordered to the audience like the songs above. In some songs, the narrator sings about her/his desire for change, from a wishful first- person point of view. In Hamsafar (travelmate), the narrator asks a symbolic lover coming from unknown lands and stories, to take her with him/her, since she loves to travel, to move, to discover and not return:

Take me with you, I am eager of going In love with triumphing the horizon, enemy of returning

Out of context, the song can be read as a merely romantic song, but based on the lyricist’s words, the wish to move on from the stillness was interpreted with a hidden political message at that time (Etemadi 2017). Komakam kon (help me), also admires the love for departure:

I’m in love, in love like a traveller I’m in love with getting to the end In love with the strange smell of migration In the unfamiliar dawn of the roads I’m full of temptations for going Going, arriving, getting fresh

In this song, the desire for moving from the oppressed, limited, strangled state to the freedom, limitlessness and open-mindedness is depicted in the allegory of a fish, the narrator, wishing to travel from a small pond to the sea, and asking the audience for help:

Help me, help me, don’t let me stay here till I rot Help me, help me, don’t let me kiss the lips of the death here Help me, help me, a cursed love needs fearlessness The fish of the old pond, needs fresh air from the sea My heart belongs to the sea, the pond is a prison for it The drops of water, are singing my elegy In my veins instead of blood, is the red poem of departure I’m not going to stay, staying is my death

61 ANALYSIS

Towards the end of the song, the narration lets the audience empathize with the narrator, and self-identify as an oppressed fish in need to get to the sea as well:

Help me, you and I must get to tomorrow the pond is small for us, we must go and get to the sea after this, the chorus repeats but with the change of the pronoun from “I” to “we”:

Our hearts belong to the sea, the pond is our prison Drops of water, are singing our elegy

As we can see, the contrasting binary is here between the stillness in the present situation, and the move to a better state. Codes such as old, death, prison, rotting, are used to describe the pond in contrast to the fresh air of the sea, love, red poem, related to the departure to the sea. In the pre-revolutionary literature, a children’s story about a small fish going through a hard journey to the sea despite of all the forces stopping him, popularized the meaning of these signifiers: fish for a brave freedom seeker traveling to get to the sea, the ultimate freedom. Mahi siah-e Koochooloo (little black fish), written by Behrang Samadi in 1977, became very popular but banned by SAVAK for being a political allegory. This allegory became the source of inspiration for many songs as the song mentioned above and Roodkhooneha(rivers):

Rivers, rivers, I want to depart I want to get to the sea, become a fish, become a fish I’m not leaving my destiny for tomorrow I’m not getting used to making wishes every moment I want to dust off my heart, burry my dusty wishes The waves of the sea, know the story of my departure. (Roodkhoone-ha [rivers])

Googoosh, the songstress and pop icon of pre-revolution pop music, in the music video of Fasle Taze (new season/chapter), appeared in a fashionable but full hijab. This unordinary look, accompanying the background set of the video in spray-painted walls reminding of the graffiti during protests, and the lyrics signal strong revolutionary sentiments for change (figure 6). The

62 ANALYSIS narrator of this song is praising a heroic, pure love, that gave her courage to fight against the “old tale” and make a “new season”

Look! how fearless, how fearless I am attacking the borders of the old tales Look how stubborn, in this cold I am making a new season for love A pure season , a safe and fear-free season For you who is a sensitive flower petal A warm and comfortable season, under my skin For you, the most precious treasure Look, for your love, how selfless, I am kissing the frozen body of the flying Come warm me up with the redness of your blood I kiss those songful vessels I kiss you, you the pure naked I kiss you as purely as the velvet around Qoran Rise, I get warmth from you Rise, I get courage from you

The song makes a binary contrast between the present, with codes of winter, cold and frozen, and an ideal new season (can signify spring or a new book chapter). She gets the inspiration to move, from a pure as velvet around Qoran, sensitive as a flower petal, warm and red-blooded figure that can be a freedom fighter, a companion in the fight, or the concept of freedom itself. If this figure is a metaphor for freedom, the narrator calls it the most precious treasure, and wants to kiss its vessls, pour it into her blood and let it go under her skin. With the warmth and courage she gets from it, she aims to make a new, pure, safe and fear-free season. The narrator’s desire to move and break the structures and make a new season, is described with sacred and energizing codes like fearless, selfless, stubborn and courageous.

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Figure 6- Googoosh in the music video of Fasle Tazeh (new season)

Table 4- Binary codes contrasting staying in the current situation and taking actions

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4.8.4 The visions of the desired state

At this point, the song draws the image of a utopian future. Freedom, purity, happiness, and hope as the ideals are embodied in binary symbols: light(moon) after the night, sea after the pond, freedom after captivation, smile after sorrow.

Finally, one night, the moon will come out from the depth of the valley, from the top of that mountain above this square, moon will be smiling One night the moon will come (Shabane 1[Nocturnal 1])

Even if death is the price, the freedom that will come as a result is worth it, either in this world or the world after death. This is the ultimate mobilization power of the song that ends the scene with the courage that must be already piled up in the listener.

Oh I wish this wall would fall, you and I would die together in another world hold each other’s hands Maybe in that world, will be no hatred in the hearts between their windows, there might be no wall (Do Panjere [Two Windows])

The ideals are sometimes embodied in an imagined, anticipated saviour:

One person will come that I’m waiting to meet One person will come that I’m eager to smell Like a miracle, its name is said in the books Its body knows how to make romantic poems It will fill our empty table with poppy flowers againts the black waves, it will protect us with its hands My forever absent, does not like me crying My forever absent, will heal my wounds (Hamishe ghayeb [forever absent])

The narrator calls this saviour “forever absent”, as if he is not certain of its arrival. But he raises his voice in the bridge and asks nervously:

What if it won’t come at all? What if its voice won’t reach my ears?

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What if the mirrors go black, the star would go blind?

But this nervous question itself manifests the keen anticipation of the narrator for that desired state. The narrator assures us that the person will come, by repeating the chorus (like a miracle his name is the books). Then he suggests, the miraculous saviour is our rage and our movement:

The rage in this tired voice, is the forever absent The key to the locked box is the forever absent The yell of the white horse in grandmother’s tales The best ambiguous poems are the forever absent.

4.8.5 Employing familiar elements and a nostalgic remembrance

The lyrics draw on elements belonging to the shared nostalgia and collective cultural identity of the audience, to helps them identify with the song and recognize it as the description of themselves. The 1970s songs, build a contrast between the past and present Iran. The past is associated with origi- nality, nativity, innocence, and intimacy, in contrast to the present that is de- pressive, oppressed, and deprived. This contrast accumulates sorrow and an- ger towards the present situation. Some songs such as Gonjishkake Ahi Mashi that I analysed earlier, use folklore and oral culture songs to adopt the scenario of political struggle. Some songs such as koodakane(childishly) use nostalgic elements related to childhood, and picture a better past where the traditional life, sometimes associated with religious elements is desired and preferred. We must instantly see this narrative within the dominant pre-revolution opposition discourse. The main resistance, shared by the Islamist, leftist and nationalist parties, was against Shah’s rapid modernization and western economic and cultural colonization, and the suggestion was going back to nativity and to the Iranian original -not only pre-Islamic heritage but also the Islamic- cultural roots. Koodakane, lists the nostalgic elements of childhood and Iranian traditions from the perspective of a child (or an adult remembering his childhood). With

66 ANALYSIS a mixture of childhood sentiments, pre-Islamic Persian traditions like Nowruz (Persian new year), and the religious elements, it creates an identifiable, nostalgic atmosphere that involves the audience emotionally:

The smell of the new year’s gift The smell of ball The smell of colored papers The sharp smell of smoked fish in the middle of the new table cloth The smell of jasmine in grandmother’s prayer mat

Remembering these elements, the narrator repeats in the chorus:

With these, I pass the winter With these, I rewind my fatigue

Monfaredzadeh, says he composed this song after his release from the short arrest of SAVAK and wanted to make a less political, safer song in the pressure of censorship. Yet, he sees this “winter” as a symbol for the situation they were in (Etemadi 2011& 2013). The song suggests that the nostalgic remembrance of the past, nativity and innocence, saves the narrator from the uncomfortable present situation, whether it be personal or socio-political. In the previous section, I mentioned two songs that simply build their narrative around the opposition of the old, native land and the western mo- dernizing force. Booy-e khoob-e gandom (the good smell of wheat) described the homeland as pure and authentic, but in the hardship imposed by moneta- rist and exploitive west. Gharye-ye man (my village) as well, used sacred codes to describe the village of the narrator an old, beautiful, intimate, in contrast to the profane antagonist which is a cold hand, from hell, setting fire, stealing the water spring. Another song with a similar narrative is Hava-ye Taze (fresh air). It starts by picturing the present this way:

The roof of my house is pure gold, under my feet is cold wicker In my hand is golden apple, but my heart is full of pain Like a willow tree, I am leaning on someone I became a tree in the desert, lonely and dry, a captive

It complains that in spite of having valuable resources at home, the narrator (people) are poor and sad. This can be a complaint to the dependence of the

67 ANALYSIS regime on foreign powers while the wealth is not distributed fairly to people inside the country. “Leaning on someone else” implies that independence is taken away from the narrator, whether on an individual or a national level. After this description, there comes a twist. The song shows the sacred picture of the past not only in the lyrics but also in a sudden change of the music. The music goes out of its pop/rock flow played by piano, violin, and guitar, and a short traditional melody with Persian instrument plays. In- stead of the main solo vocalist, a choire sings:

But there was a time, when our grandfather used to say heaven is our own world, love and faith…

And then this flow stops with the main vocalist shouting:

where are they now?

Then the song goes back to its beginning flow. This short passage, like a voice from the past, comes to indicate the “going back” motif. Going back to the time when the tunes were more indigenous and life was linked to heaven, love and faith. The theme of picturing a better past in contrast with a bad present strengthens the effect of the protest narrative. It is a means for raising nostalgia for the shared past and practices and therefore plays an important role in the successful presentation of the script to the audience to the extent that they can identify with it and get emotionally involved. Within the context of the 1970s Iran, it can also be interpreted as part of the going back to nativity and true roots as the tendency of the intellectual discourse against Shah’s rapid modernization and western colonization. In the context of after the revolution, this discourse of desiring for a better past represents the desire for the pre- revolutionary Iran and shows dissatisfaction with the Islamic republic.

This was the narrative that the songs of the 1970s build. Starting with a description of the current situation, the songs represent and strengthen the feeling of frustration and despair using nature-related symbols and metaphors to simplify the agony between people and an oppressive force, and drawing upon familiar and nostalgic elements to make it more relatable for the audience. Then they shift this feeling to rage and the desire for making a change

68 ANALYSIS and call for collective action, while drawing the image of a possible better world. I should point that the quoted songs are picked among all the other pop songs of the era, because of their reputation for being political. I could find most mentioned parts of the narrative in them, that can make them easily interpretable with political messages. Nevertheless, the same use of the symbols and metaphors I reviewed in these songs, can be found in many other songs of this era which might be estimated as protest songs. They are rather personal and romantic, but still describe a melancholic depression, and the ideal state of being, with the same symbolism and contrasts used in the protest songs, and their popularity helps to plant this collective scenario and collective feelings in the audience. As Ali Toosi mentions, the protest pre-revolutionary songs, combined a sense of nostalgia and tradition, religion, folklore, and children’s culture, with the idealism and protest spirit. This combination depicts the contradictory society of Iran and enables this art to be meaningful in every other historical and political momentum (Zinatbakhsh 2004). The power of the songs in the context of after revolution is the topic of the next chapter.

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4.9 The role of Iranian pre-revolutionary songs in the post-revolution context

In the previous chapters, I argued that the songs made in 1970s Iran, build a narrative to represent the protest, the struggles, and the demands of people prior to the 1979 revolution. This narrative bears the core ideas of a political, social, and existential movement: a fight between a collective good (people) and a singular evil (anti-people). The oppressed, the protagonist, expresses its frustration from the fearful, depressed, and strangulated situation that the oppressor has caused. Then it frames a desire for moving towards freedom while calling the audience upon solidarity that would get them to the ideal, free future. These songs were produced in the context of pre-revolution Iran and in the opposition discourse that pervaded the arts of that time. They refer to the protest to the Shah regime’s political oppression, forced westernization, and economic failure. But since this protest narrative is symbolic and open-ended and is not attached to any specific event (due to censorship), it can be repeated and reused in different contexts. As Eyerman and Jamison (1998) suggest, the songs of social movements carry the core ideas of the movement and are remade and repeated in the next moments when the core values of a society are endangered. This way, the songs link the generations like a river of embodied meanings. In the following pages, I show that the pre-revolutionary protest songs kept their role after the revolution and continued serving to the collective representation of the political conflict of people, this time with a new oppressive establishment. The protesting narrative of the pre-revolution songs is retold and echoed by the protesters in the anti-establishment movements after the revolution, as well as by the exile media and former pre-revolutionary musicians. But in this new context, the signifiers have changed signified: what was used before the revolution to demonize Shah, is now addressing the Islamic Republic. The songs continue narrating, symbolically and ambiguously, the fight of the oppressed with the oppressor, thus their interpretation changes through the changes of contexts and powers. What is important, is the power of the songs in connecting generations of Iranians, as tools for expressing a shared experience and building a system of collective meanings, identities, feelings, and desires.

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4.9.1 What happened after the revolution?

The way that the state got Islamized after the revolution and practiced ex- treme policies such as the obligatory hijab for women, removing music from the public scene, and intervening the private realm of people’s lives to check their Islamic faith, was not completely predicted and intended by all the groups that fought for the revolution. The 1979 revolution was the eruption of accumulated social, political, and economic dissatisfaction of different groups. Nationalists, liberalists, Marxists, secular and Islamic intellectuals, and the clergy were involved in the effort altogether. Nevertheless, a smooth twist of power, let the fundamentalist Islamic ideas of Khomeini and his dis- ciples take over the newly established state. As Abrahamian (1982 & 2008) describes, after the revolution, Mehdi Ba- zargan’s quickly shaped cabinet consisting of nationalists and Islamic liber- als, came to conflict with Khomeini who wanted to establish a fully theocratic government based on the Shiite Islam. Bazargan pointed that writing the law completely based on Shari’a, can violate democracy at some point, and suggested a “democratic Islamic republic”. But Khomeini justified that Islam is the most complete conundrum conceived of every civil value that people need.” (Abrahamian 2008: 163) In the 1979 referendum, in a binary decision making between what seemed to people as the continuation of Shah’s oppression or a possibility of change, the masses voted yes for the Islamic republic. The Islamic republic slowly expanded committees (Basij or commite Ershad) to overwatch the daily practices of official organs and people to force Islamic rules, started imprisoning and executing its leftist critics (Mojahedin-e Khalq, Fadaeian, and former Tudeh members) that once allied with them in revolution, and established a new censorship system on media and culture (Abrahamian 1999, 2008) Music with a long history of being considered immoral and corrupting in the Shiite tradition, was doomed to be eliminated after the establishment of the new regime. Ayatollah Khomeini claimed that music affects the consciousness of the youth like opium and distracts them from what they need to be concerned with3. Music, especially pop music is a sensual exercise that

3 Khomeini’s proclamation appeared in “Ezhārāt-e emām dar mored-e barnāmeh-hā-ye musiqi-ye radio-television”[Imam’s statements on music programming on radio and television], E’telā’āt (In- formation), Mordad 1, 1358/July 23, 1979.

71 ANALYSIS cannot be in line with a religious discourse that seeks ideological control over the minds and bodies of the citizens (Lotman 1990). Following these changes, (broadcast or live) performance of any kind of music (except for propaganda anthems, Shiite ceremonial singing, Persian classical music, and regional folklore) got banned. Many musical instruments and performing arenas were destroyed. The pop music producers and performers either quit their career or stayed silenced in Iran or fled the country and continued their activity in exile (Youssefzadeh 2000). The entire musical activity of the pre-revolutionary musicians for the Islamic republic is auto- matically (and ironically) associated with continuing Shah’s westoxification and spreading anti-Islamic corruption. Therefore, they are unable to return to the country ever since the revolution (Hemassi 2020, Siamdoust 2017, Naficy 2013). Some of the most successful music stars of pre-revolution have never seen the post-revolution Iran. The Islamic regime also banned the musicians of the pre-revolutionary protest songs. Even though they engaged in the fight against the Shah regime, the Islamic government banned them acknowledging their power in affecting and mobilizing the crowds through music. Farhad’s wife says: “They said because Farhad was a protest singer in the previous regime, now to be allowed to sing he must clearly show his agreement with the new regime. They feared his cultural influence on people.” (Darolshafayi 2012). The important figures of the protest music, Farhad and Fereydoon Fo- rooghi remained in the country without being allowed to publish music until their death (Zinatbakhsh 2001, Darolshafayi 2012) and the rest reside in exile since the revolution. Alongside the musicians who were unwillingly put in opposition with the Islamic establishment merely because of their job, a lot of other Iranians whose ideas were not aligned with the regime fled the country and formed a large Iranian diaspora.

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4.9.2 Islamic Republic’s use of pre-revolutionary protest songs

Despite this unpleasant position that the musicians were put in and without their consent4, the Islamic republic uses some of the pre-revolution protest songs in the public media, as a part of its propaganda. The Islamic regime treats the protest narrative of the song as “post-conflict” (Leone 2012:360) referring to the overthrown of Shah by the courageous revolutionaries. The Islamic regime puts itself as the protagonist, freedom fighters and uses the songs to celebrate and own this victory. The song Baharan Khojaste Bad (may the spring be merry) is made and performed by the pioneering composer of protest songs Monfaredzadeh some days after the revolution. The song pictures the blissful arrival of spring, a metaphor for the revolution and the victory over the “evil” regime:

The weather became pleasant, flowers grew in gardens Swallows came back home and played the tune of hope Blood is boiling in the vessels of plants The blissful spring is slowly arriving To the friends, relatives, acquaintances, to those rageful men who fight To the ones who with their pens reveal the darkness of the world to the world citizens May the spring be merry

The lyrics are from a prison mate of Monfaredzadeh, Abdollah Behzadi, a former Tudeh member and political prisoner in both regimes (Etemadi 2013). This song became one of the main anthems of the Islamic republic. Every year on the anniversary of the revolution it is played on the official media and is taught in primary schools for celebrating the revolution day. The song Vahdat (unity), is composed one day after the revolution by Mon- faredzadeh and performed by Farhad, and is written by Siavash Kasraie a poet known for his leftist political activism before revolution. It starts with a direct quote from the prophet Mohammad:

4 Farhad’s wife estates her and her husbands lack of consent to the use of two of his songs (Koodakane and Vahdat) on the national media, and the fact that she she persued legal action against the violation of the copy right (Darolshafayi 2012). Esfandiar monfared- zade also estates his dissatisfaction from the use of his song Baharan Khojaste Bad and Vahdat in the offical media (Etemadi 2013).

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“A land survives with infidelity, but does not survive with oppression”

And continues addressing the prophet Mohammad:

Grand messenger Mohammad You said a land with oppression and injustice would never stay strong and upright Then you symbolically, held your cloak of unity above the head of all the pures of the time but under this dear cloak, is there space for the freeman who slid a sword on the tyranny?

Based on the narration of Monfaredzadeh, this poem is the question of its leftist poet from the newly emerged Islamic state that claims to be the representative of Islam: “will you tolerate and give space to the non-Islamist groups who fought for the revolution?” While the actions of the Islamic republic in the decade after the revolution answered no to this question, this song is played on the official Islamic Republic’s media every year on the bir- thday of prophet Mohammad. Monfaredzadeh says, smiling, “they still think this song is about praising them and Islam!” (Etemadi 2013). Another protest song that is employed in the official media to celebrate the anniversary of the revolution, the street rallies for the state support, and people’s participation in the elections, is Yar-e Dabestani-e Man (My schoolmate). This song that was earlier mentioned in the analysis chapter, was performed by Fereidoon Forooghi shortly after the revolution, but his voice got banned based on the problem that the new regime had with the pre-revolutionary protest musicians, and a new version that is now used on media was recorded by a different singer. This song is an important case of analysis, because of its double life in two opposit discourses: the official Islamic republic media, and the protest movements against the Islamic regime. This song takes us to the subject of the following section: the life of the pre-revolutionary songs in the Islamic Republic opposition discourse and movements.

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4.9.3 The pre-revolution songs as tools of protests to the Islamic Republic

The pre-revolution music manifests its ability to be the container of the core ideals of the revolution, a long-lasting frame for perceiving the political and social reality and an effective script for the next movements when we look at the ways that Iranian people express their frustration from the current state through this music. Through this music they, either in the country or in the diaspora can keep a sense of solidarity based upon a shared protest and a shared desire for a free Iran. For those Iranians who were not in line with the Islamic Republic actions, the pre-revolution protest music is not a post-conflict narrative, it is rather a “pre-conflict” one (Leone 2012: 360) enabling them to point the protest gun to the new regime, that in their opinion betrayed the goal of the 1979 revolution and did not dismantle the source of oppression and injustice. In the student movement of 1997 (Jonbesh-e Daneshjuyi 18 Tir 1376), the protestors used Yar-e Dabestani-e Man (My schoolmate) as an anthem. The same song was sung by the masses in the Green Movement of 2009, the larg- est protest movement in the country since 1979, raised after a presidential election which result was thought to be fraudulent (Athanasiadis 2009). This song is ever since present as a solidarizing anthem in the street protests regarding the actions of the Islamic republic. Even the generations that might not know the pre-revolutionary context in which this song was born can relate to it in the context of their current struggle (Leone 2012). The simple narrative of this song calls for the companionship of all people sharing the same background, “the schoolmates” to rise against “the twig of injustice and oppression” beating on the heads and “rip the curtains” and take their destiny in their own hands. The presence of the other pre-revolutionary protest songs was visible in the streets and in the audio-visual material on the internet reflecting the topic. They were also central in the Iranian exile media which plays a significant role in reflecting the opposition discourse of the Islamic republic and covers the news of protests. The emphasis on the pre-revolutionary music in the exile media functions for strengthening the collective identity of people inside and outside of Iran.

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4.9.4 The sound of protest coming from exile

The pre-revolutionary music and anti-Islamic-republic discourse, both moved to diaspora after the revolution and continued accompanying the opposition movements inside the country. One way for them to do so was maintaining and praising pre-revolution cultural heritage such as music. As mentioned earlier, after the revolution the members of the music industry, along with many other people, fled Iran. Based on the political circum- stances that made them move and disabled them to return, many of these Ira- nians are somehow in opposition to the Islamic republic government and identify themselves as Iranians in exile (Naficy 1993) In this exile, they formed cultural productions and mass media through which they maintained their presence that was tried to be removed after the revolution. Their programs and music reach Iran through illegal ways: illegally imported cassettes that could cost their owners fine and prison, and satellite television that is forbidden but to some extent tolerated (Siamdoust 2017, Youssefzadeh 2000). These media and music productions are ways for the diaspora community to hold on to the shared memory of the homeland and teleport their sorrow for the loss of homeland and longing for return, their frustration from the system that has put them in exile, and maintaining their Iranian identity by showing solidarity with the people inside Iran. (Hemassi 2020, Naficy 1993) The exile media content is outspoken political opposition to the Islamic Republic. Demonizing and criticizing the Islamic republic is a way to demon- strate the pain of the loss of the homeland, plus “the loss of the revolution’s result, and in the case of music the loss of the first-hand audience” (Naficy 1993). Although broadcasting Iran’s news, and analysing and criticizing political and social events make a big proportion of the programs of these media, programs around pop music are a big body of their time and economy. Since the Islamic republic banned pop music, focusing on it is itself a political state- ment, and presenting the pre-revolution music and era as a freer more desirable state is as well contrasting with the Islamic regime. The music productions of pre-revolutionary and newer generations of performers are shown through these media, their concerts are advertised and pro- moted, and there are lots of programs with the centrality of (specifically pre- revolutionary) pop music artists: talk shows, interviews, and documentaries in which the pre-revolutionary musicians, are praised as the idols and the pre- revolution music as a golden age of Iranian free, happy, meaningful life

76 ANALYSIS deserved to long for (Hemmasi 2020, Naficy 1993). Examples of such practices are the interview documentaries used in this thesis, that Manoto TV, BBC Persian and VOA (exile media) have made about the pre-revolutionary musicians. Some pre-revolution singers, spotlight their old songs by reproducing a new version of them, or by featuring with another artist of that time in a mash- up of their old songs. Googoosh featuring with Martik (Refaghat [friend- ship]), with Ebi (Nostalgia), and with Shameizadeh (Mosalase Khatere-ha [the triangle of memories]), frames the nostalgic longing for the time by re- vising their old songs. Dariush and Faramarz Aslani, in their featuring song Divar [the wall] that was made shortly after the 2009 green movement in Iran, reference parts of their old songs to build a more obviously political narrative, showing their position towards the current situation. The pre-revolution songs with a protest message, are presented by the exile media (including the artists of the songs themselves that are now visible in these media), as meaningful and relevant in the context of the political social conflicts of the country after the revolution. These media and pre-revolutionary artists in exile, use the songs along with their political reaction. For example, the songs are on videos showing the protesting crowds in the streets of Iran in the 2009 and later movement. In some interview documentaries with protest musicians, the explanation of the some of the protest pre-revolutionary songs overlaps images of the protest movements in Iran. Some of the pre-revolutionary musicians, produced new songs in exile for and about Iran, representing the empathy with the oppressed society and their grief for a destroyed land. Their songs contain ideas of regret, pity, shame, and sadness looking through the transformation of Iran to an avareh (ruins) after the revolution. Obviously, in the absence of censorship and far from the government’s reach, the narrative in these songs is more clear and freer from the ambiguity of the pre-revolution songs. Dobareh Misazamat Vatan (I will rebuild you homeland), a post-revolutionary protest song made in exile by Dariush, made its way to the heart of the street protests of 2009. (see Hem- masi 2017). The musicians in diaspora get a strong sense of identity, filling up the holes caused by their forced departure, by the imagined influence they have on the Iranian people. Even though many of them have not seen post-revolution Iran and do not have a precise picture of the limitations of social and political life in Iran, they see themselves as agents for saying what people cannot say

77 ANALYSIS

(Hemmasi 2020). By keeping their presence in the exile media and music scene, and in the minds of the new generations, they show their company with the protests in Iran and resist the power that tried to eliminate them from the memories. In the same way, keeping the pre-revolutionary music and the memory of their musicians, becomes a political act of protest and resistance for the new generation.

4.9.5 Pre-revolutionary music, links generations of Iranians together

For Iranians inside Iran, in the decade after the revolution, where the only color of the school uniforms was black, the only allowed musical sound was propaganda anthem and mourning for the martyrs of the Iran-Iraq war, and the media was strictly controlled and censored, following the exile media and the pop pre-revolution musicians, prepared a free space that let them practice the political criticism and the joy of music they are not able to practice openly inside the country. (Siamdoust 2017, Naficy 1995) Since pop music was removed from the official scene, it became an object of desire and nostalgia (Youssefzadeh 2000). The mere act of keeping the banned pre-revolutionary songs through pirate copies and illegal media channels is a resistance to the power that removed them. Using the protest pre-revolutionary songs and further than that, singing them in the street protests of the current contexts, en- hances the effect of the songs as tools for resistance. For the new generations of Iranians in the diaspora as well, the pre-revolutionary music is a remembrance of a shared identity linked to the homeland. Consuming pre-revolution pop songs for the generation in the diaspora, is sharing meanings and memories and cultural practices from the homeland, that ‘can draw a circle around them as the community of diaspora and define them as a society’ (Werbner 2002). The collective cultural practices with a certain orientation towards the shared concept of homeland, create a sense of belonging, familiarity, cultural intimacy (Herzfeld 2005), and assures them they are part of an imagined society (Hemmasi 2013). The remembrance and praise of the pre-revolution and creating a fanta- sized picture of the era is used as a way to protest the loss of homeland and

78 ANALYSIS also a way to pass to the next generation the shared meaning of the homeland including its experience of oppression. In a study on the second-generation Iranian immigrant young students in Los Angeles, Maghbouleh (2010) have found that these students associate the pre-revolution pop music with the definition of the homeland that their parents have lived in and have told them about. “An inherited nostalgia”, is what is being circulated via the music of pre-revolution to help them understand their roots better (2010:119). After the radical changes of the 1979 revolution, the post-revolution Ira- nian generation inside Iran also never saw the free homeland that the musicians in exile sing and long for. The contact between the Iranians in Iran and the exiled community is cut ever since 1979. Therefore, the music passes the inherited nostalgia to the generation of Iranians inside Iran as well. It helps them understand the goals of their previous generation and examine their own socio-political situation in its frames, and indeed find it relatable. Referring to Jamison and Eyerman’s notion of mobilization of traditions (1998), it is the visions and ideals of a civil, just, and democratic society that remains in music and gets passed to generations. The pre-revolutionary music is the embodiment of these ideas that link people’s minds through a sense of nostalgia and longing for a free Iran and enables them to share a story of suffrage, resistance, and action, with their previous generation as well as with their fellows inside and outside of the country. For both Iranians outside and inside of the borders, the free Iran that is the subject of nostalgia and longing is out of reach, and they can keep remembering this through the music that aims for freedom.

79 CONCLUSION

5 Conclusion

Throughout this thesis, I as a person grown up in post-revolution Iran went after the question: what makes pre-revolutionary pop music belonging to a time and context I have not seen and was pushed out of my sight by the state power, survive and live on in our living experience and still be relatable, intimate, and identifiable for two generations of pre and post-revolution Irani- ans? With a cultural sociological approach to pop music, I found out that music made around a social movement carries the core ideas of social, political, and existential struggles of a society (Eyerman and Jamison 1998). Songs can narrate a collective perception and interpretation of the social situation. If this narrative and its social meanings create an organic, genuine lyrical and sonic blend, and assimilate a popular form that lets it become part of people’s daily consumption, the songs can simultaneously provide musical joy, and shape and strengthen collective meanings and feelings about the social situation for the audience (Reed 2005, Roy 2010). Songs can become effective scripts, that frame the way people express their concerns and act upon it. They can connect generations of audiences in a world of shared meanings and orientations (Eyerman and Jamison 1998). The pre-revolutionary music of Iran was a reflection of the political, social, and artistic discourse of its time. In the decade leading to the biggest revolution of Iran’s contemporary history, artists felt committed to represent people’s pain and express their protest to the Shah regime’s political oppression, economic unjust and rushed modernization. Since they were closely watched and censored, they developed a system of symbolic, metaphoric, vague, and ambiguous language to integrate their socially committed messages into their art. This symbolic language could go undetected by the censorship, but was recognized by the audience that shared the same struggle with the artist, and was targetted to identify with the protagonist of the protest art: a victim who suffers under oppression and a hero who fights for freedom. (Karimi-Hakkak 1997; Naficy 1997; Sandler 1986; Talattof 2000; Vahabzadeh 2015) At the same time, with Shah’s modernization and westernization plans, came cultural policies that gave ground to the arts, such as pop music, to catch up with the international standards, and grow as aesthetic, popular and

80 CONCLUSION massively circulated cultural forms (Breyley 2010; Moussavi-Aghdam 2014; Nooshin 2005) When this music that already found its place in people’s daily lives, integrated the socially criticizing messages, its effect on strengthening the collective representation of the social conflict and people’s solidarity in a movement increased. The lyrics borrowed the same set of symbols established and popularized by the protest literature of the 1970s and made a blend of poetic literality and simple conversational language that was more appropriate for songs and made them more accessible for people of different levels of literacy. The narrative of the lyrics, symbolically describes society’s atmosphere as depressed, oppressed and people as stagnated, deprived, feared, and silenced. It allegorizes the conflict of people with the evil cause of this situation, in binary contrasting symbols and nature-related metaphors. This way, the song sim- plifies the complex political and social conflict that society is going through, and makes it a straightforward script for a movement. Focusing on the binary opposition of a collective good/protagonists/people, with a singular/evil/oppressive force, the songs enable the audience to distinguish the object of their fight (Alexander 2006). After amplifying the audience’s frustration and rage, the songs call them to act together against the oppressor and move from this state of fear, depression, and hatred to a place where freedom, ideals and love might exist. The story of the fight of a good oppressed with an oppressive force is not limited to the context of the 1979 revolution and was experienced and repeated in the movements after the Islamic revolution. The pre-revolutionary musicians themselves became the objects of oppression after the revolution when their entire musical activity was announced forbidden (Youssefzadeh 2000). These musicians along with other Iranians that left the country because their voice was not tolerated by the Islamic Republic, repeated and remade the pre-revolution songs as a way to express their frustration and longing to return to a free homeland (Hemmasi 2020; Naficy 1995) In exile, they used these songs to hold on to their identity: belonging to a shared homeland but having to stay apart from it because it does not include the voice of opposition. Songs become a way for the exile to keep solidarity with the Iranians inside the country who as well, try to open space for their voice of protest. The protestors in Iran, use the songs of pre-revolution to interpret their current social struggle and connect to any Iranian feeling the same way.

81 CONCLUSION

This thesis was a suggestion, to look deeper into the cultural products that are in the heart of people’s living experience, to interpret what makes them last and what effect do they have on shaping the way people perceive their social reality. The pre-revolution songs that were once the voice of protest for a generation, were tried to be removed from the visible public space, but if their pirate cassettes were privately kept and listened to, if the younger generation knows them and by them feels a certain way about their current political struggle, and moreover if the younger generation sings these songs in the street protest, there is a point to them. There is a point worth studying and looking for the ways these songs could build a long-lasting, date -and-place- free mythical narrative that is relatable in any context in which a fight of the oppressed society against an oppressive power is being experienced. In different historical momentums, the role of the oppressed and the oppressor, and object of protest changes, but what connects people to move towards a collective action against their conflict, is a world of shared meanings and orientations(Alexander 2003, 2006). A cultural sociological interpretation of the pre-revolutionary Iranian songs shows that music is a shared, yet un- derestimated cultural practice that can plant the seeds of meaning in minds and create a representative frame of how people see, understand, feel and act about their social and political concerns. I believe that the younger generation borrowed the narrative tradition from the pre-revolutionary music, to frame their messages in the protest music made after the revolution, but this is a topic worth extensive focus in another study. I hope this study contributed to future studies on the significance of pop cultural products in Iran. Iran’s current ideology and religion-based government forces people to deny the sensual, distracting pop music and leisure culture. But, with a deeper look, it is observable that these cultural forms have survived the backlash and have a dual life in Iran: concealed in the public scene and practiced in private. What gets forbidden becomes a more desirable object, and affects people. The academic studies on Iran’s culture and society, must not deny this interesting dynamics of pop culture and state power, and the synthesis of all of this on people’s collective representations of social life and political conflicts and their choices of action.

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91 NAME INDEX

Name Index

Abu-Lughod, Lila, 39 Ghadiri, Momene, 42

Abrahamian, Ervand, 30, 31, Gluck, Robert, 32, 33 32, 33, 40, 71 Hall, Stuart, 22 Alexander, Jeffrey C, 17, 18, 19, 26, 36, 42, 44, 45, 46, 54, Harati, Mohammad Javad, 31, 81, 82 33

Averill, Gage, 39 Hemmasi, Farzaneh, 34, 35, 36, 39, 44, 45, 77, 78, 81 Breyley, Gay, 34, 35, 36, 81 Herzfeld, Michael, 78 Caton, Steven Charles, 39 Jamison, Andrew, 18, 24, 25, Collins, Randall, 26 38, 40, 41, 44, 45, 70, 79, 80

Crawford, Anwyn, 35 Jasper, James M, 26

Danaher, William F, 24, 26, 28 Karimi-Hakkak, Ahmad, 40, 43, 80 Durkheim, Emile, 18, 25, 27 Khoshnam, Mahmoud, 38, 41 Eyerman, Ron, 18, 24, 25, 38, 40, 41, 44, 45, 70, 79, 80 Lafleur, Jean Michel, 29

Flacks, Richard, 26, 28 Leone, Massimo, 50, 73, 75

Flick, Uwe, 17 Lipsitz, George, 26

Futrell, Robert, 26 Lotman, Y, 72

Gamson, Joshua, 26 Maghbouleh, Neda, 79

Gamson, William A., 24 Malek, Mehdi, 36

Geertz, Clifford, 18, 23 Manoukian, Setrag, 39

92 NAME INDEX

Martiniello, Marco, 29 Snow, David A, 24

Meftahi, Ida, 34 Spillman, Lyn, 17, 24

Miller, Flagg, 39 Street, John, 28

Moinzadeh, Ahmad, 42 Talattof, Kamran, 32, 33, 40, 80 Moussavi-Aghdam, Combiz, 32, 33, 81 Vahabzadeh, Peyman, 32, 40, 41, 42, 43, 80 Naficy, Hamid, 32, 33, 72, 76, 77, 78, 81 Werbner, P, 78

Naficy, Majid, 43, 54, 80 Wetherell, Margaret, 22

Nettl, Bruno, 34 Willig, Carla, 22

Nooshin, Laudan, 34, 35, 81 Youssefzadeh, Ameneh, 35, 72, 76, 78, 81 Patton, Michael Quinn, 22

Potter, Jonathan, 22

Pratt, Ray, 41

Reed, Thomas Vernon, 24, 25, 42, 44, 60, 80

Rekabtalaei, Golbarg, 34

Rolston, Bill, 29

Roy, William G, 25, 28, 80

Sandler, Rivanne, 33, 40, 80

Shay, Anthony, 35

Siamdoust, Nahid, 72, 76, 78

Smith, Philip, 19