Abstract
Providing bases for developing the people’s musical taste can increase the music consumption in every society. While in the United States and some major developed countries there are companies and organizations such as SoundScan that constantly monitor the consumption of music and selling musical albums and concerts to provide the exact statistics in periodic manners such as weekly, monthly and annually, there are no statistics for music consumption in Iran in any form. The only statistics one can find is the number of licenses issued by Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance for publishing albums and giving formal concerts. This article provided the statistics for Albums and concerts formally took licenses in Iran in the period of 2009-2011 and compares the decline and increase of various musical genres in Iran. Analyzing the data provided by this study sheds light on this fact that the production of musical albums in Iran is declining steadily, while the number of seats sold for music concerts are increasing. Same change has been taking place in other countries since 2005. The data, on the other hand, shows that while various genres of popular music are increasing in Iran, in recent years, the production of Iranian traditional music is decreasing quite sharply. This fact rings the alarm for lovers of Persian culture all around the world. Governmental statistics show that Iran currently has one of the youngest populations in the world (more than 17 million of Iranian population are between 20 to 29). By 2016 the population of young people will be drop to less than 15.5 million. So, it is quite normal for now to see increase in the number of albums and performances on various genres in popular music. The problem however, lies on presently declining the production of Iranian traditional music. By the time that current Iranian youngsters will become old and nostalgic about their musical heritage, the contemporary Iranian musicians would be retired and there would be a great shortage of master performers who traditionally can produce Iranian music. The findings of this study put this fact forward that governmental and non-governmental organizations should act now to preserve Iranian traditional music for future generations. The other problem Iranian traditional music is facing is its absence in the local and national TV stations. During the last decade, Iranian musical tradition is gradually taking out from daily schedule of TV programs so that youngster mostly cannot remember watching any Iranian musical instruments on TV. Since Iran has not been signed the copyright agreement, Iranian artists are feeling very vulnerable over the future of their professional careers. In the light of this problem the only artists who can save themselves are pup singers who can guarantee selling the seats of their live concerts in big music halls. Traditional performers who perform in small halls and have little on their hands to set large concert tours can only relay on selling their physical albums. The medium which already is getting forgotten among other means of musical recordings.
Azadehfar, M. (2015). Changes in Iranians Musical Taste based on analyzing the Concerts and Music Albums released from 2008 to 2010. , 5(9), 97-104. doi: 10.30480/dam.2015.132
MLA
Mohammadreza Azadehfar. "Changes in Iranians Musical Taste based on analyzing the Concerts and Music Albums released from 2008 to 2010". , 5, 9, 2015, 97-104. doi: 10.30480/dam.2015.132
HARVARD
Azadehfar, M. (2015). 'Changes in Iranians Musical Taste based on analyzing the Concerts and Music Albums released from 2008 to 2010', , 5(9), pp. 97-104. doi: 10.30480/dam.2015.132
VANCOUVER
Azadehfar, M. Changes in Iranians Musical Taste based on analyzing the Concerts and Music Albums released from 2008 to 2010. , 2015; 5(9): 97-104. doi: 10.30480/dam.2015.132