Stealing our memories…!?

 

    Song writers, music composers, and music arrangers together create the basics for a singer the work he/she will eventually perform. History has it that it is as much important to have a good group of musicians as it is to be a great singer. Googoosh is known to have always skillfully picked the best of the best. Whether the already famous or the infamous youths Googoosh has always managed to pick those works that best matched her taste of music and words. It is of no exaggeration to state that her taste has always been embraced by most if not all Iranians and alike.

 

       Whoever enters the world of music and desires a position in its hall of fame must practice the right ethics of the profession. The success engulfed in the world of music can only be achieved through uniqueness that ought to be presented in the artist’s style of preference. In the recent years especially after 1979 the Iranian music industry has chosen a different path, one of no sense of uniqueness and no desire to set a style of preference. One can easily single out many artists who have not only shown to be repetitive but also have revealed that they would do anything to make a few bucks. The unprofessional desire to recreate the golden songs of the old days without a single credit given to the original team who first created the art is strictly contrary to their claim that the ‘LA music’ is not as bad as the experts say.

            

       The LA singers take it extremely hard when the high ranking experts of Persian POP music criticize them of flailing to deliver the type of work that can be considered as an art yet they have not shown the smallest effort to act with the ethics one expects them of. It is admittedly hard to choose and produce the type of music, words, and arrangements that have been done in the past by singers such as Googoosh; nonetheless it comes with the profession as it is hard to do any job. It can be argued that Googoosh and few others are still able to do so while most others steal their hard work and poorly torture the song and their own reputation or anything left of it.

 

       To name a few one can easily remember Shohreh Solati, and Shahram Solati who have not only sang Googoosh’s song but have also done so with other non-persian musics as well. Mansour also recently has released a song named “Azadi” in which he uses the music of Googoosh’s “Talagh” with no mention of the original track hoping people specially the younger generation might not recognize. Shahryar has recently renamed Googoosh’s “Risheh” to “Hichki mesle to nabood” and poorly performed it with no mention of the original track once again hoping to mislead specially the younger generation in exile who might not be familiar to the song. There are many others who fit this category.

 

       It is absolutely despicable to hear these songs be demolished by poor performances that not only damages the singer’s reputation and the song’s glory but also scratches the beautiful memories people do have with those amazing songs with Googoosh’s amazing voice. Of course other singers, song writers, composers, and arrangers have been a victim of these thefts but no one has been more of a victim than Googoosh and when she speaks out against the LA music they get upset!!! How do they even look in the mirror the next day?!

 

       I simply want to advise them to seek their style of music and hunt for a unique music and songs of their own instead of stealing our memories.

 

By: Ali Anari

May 24, 2005