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  1. Great interview, Ali. It's also great to see a few follow up questions asked by other members. Interested in seeing your responses, if you have time....
  2. First of all, thanks everyone for the nice comments...I'd like to thank the academy...ok, let's not get carried away



    oh yea, I certainly did!

    Originally posted by loftarasa:interesting that you 'found' them through Bono's participation on "Perfect Day", and then with "The Hands That Built..." ... I'm curious: was it a rather big 'shock' to find out that only the fewest songs are something similar to the songs you found them through ?


    It took some time, I came across ATYCLB after that, it wasn' that different, not enough to give me a shock. Later came HTDAAB and some of the older songs (pre-90), still smooth changes, not that bad...but later came Achtung-Zooropa-Pop...it took a while to take all that in, I specially remember Zooropa shocked me, but I liked it, I loved Zooropa itself, Lemon, Dirty Day, The Wanderer, The First Time, Stay,...sooo


    My pleasure, you're the man who showed me around when I had first joined this place



    We have this Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. Their job is to control all cultural stuff so that nothing western can "waste" the young people's mind or turn them away from Islam. If you want to publish a newspaper, a magazine, a book, make a movie, a music album, do a concert, open an art gallery, anything like that...you need their permission, you have to go through the required steps and get yourself a permit.

    Therefore, most western music, specially rock music can't be found legally here, as no one has been able to get a publishing permit for them. Even most Iranian rock/pop bands have issues, I think we have only one or two legal rock bands, each with one obscure album. We've only had a single rap album, and it only had 4 songs on it. So, that's how it is...

    Other kinds of western music are allowed tho, we have Andrea Bocelli and Pavarotti, we have Chris De Burgh, we have lots of instrumental albums, etc.
  3. Originally posted by Ali709:First of all, thanks everyone for the nice comments...I'd like to thank the academy...ok, let's not get carried away

    [..]

    oh yea, I certainly did!

    [..]

    It took some time, I came across ATYCLB after that, it wasn' that different, not enough to give me a shock. Later came HTDAAB and some of the older songs (pre-90), still smooth changes, not that bad...but later came Achtung-Zooropa-Pop...it took a while to take all that in, I specially remember Zooropa shocked me, but I liked it, I loved Zooropa itself, Lemon, Dirty Day, The Wanderer, The First Time, Stay,...sooo

    [..]
    My pleasure, you're the man who showed me around when I had first joined this place

    [..]

    We have this Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. Their job is to control all cultural stuff so that nothing western can "waste" the young people's mind or turn them away from Islam. If you want to publish a newspaper, a magazine, a book, make a movie, a music album, do a concert, open an art gallery, anything like that...you need their permission, you have to go through the required steps and get yourself a permit.

    Therefore, most western music, specially rock music can't be found legally here, as no one has been able to get a publishing permit for them. Even most Iranian rock/pop bands have issues, I think we have only one or two legal rock bands, each with one obscure album. We've only had a single rap album, and it only had 4 songs on it. So, that's how it is...

    Other kinds of western music are allowed tho, we have Andrea Bocelli and Pavarotti, we have Chris De Burgh, we have lots of instrumental albums, etc.


    how do you feel about the Ministry of Culture...? Like do you agree with the ideals of it? This being from a Western perspective, could not imagine not being able to listen to what I want to listen to. but obviously there are ways around it! Really interesting to hear about this culture from somewhere besides a classroom or the news
  4. Originally posted by thefly07:[..]

    how do you feel about the Ministry of Culture...? Like do you agree with the ideals of it? This being from a Western perspective, could not imagine not being able to listen to what I want to listen to. but obviously there are ways around it! Really interesting to hear about this culture from somewhere besides a classroom or the news


    I'm not proud of it. No, I don't like this system. It isn't part of our culture or even part of our religion, Islam has much more freedom in it than some muslims see these days. I do not agree with the ideals of that ministry, it is part of this government, it isn't what we want.

    But there are other conservative and hardliner people in Iran who approve this system, they are scared of the new wave, they don't want their children and the country's young to listen to western music (made in the west or in Iran), but this is just an example...their view is this: limit them, lock them down, don't let them see anything, so that they stay safe and have a healthy life.

    My view is, why stay safe and have a healthy life, if I'm locked down and limited? I wouldn't like that lifestyle, I would rather not live it.

    But we do get around quite easily, we manage to have fun in spite of all this, in this internet-age, there is really no way of limiting people!
  5. Originally posted by Ali709:[..]

    I'm not proud of it. No, I don't like this system. It isn't part of our culture or even part of our religion, Islam has much more freedom in it than some muslims see these days. I do not agree with the ideals of that ministry, it is part of this government, it isn't what we want.

    But there are other conservative and hardliner people in Iran who approve this system, they are scared of the new wave, they don't want their children and the country's young to listen to western music (made in the west or in Iran), but this is just an example...their view is this: limit them, lock them down, don't let them see anything, so that they stay safe and have a healthy life.

    My view is, why stay safe and have a healthy life, if I'm locked down and limited? I wouldn't like that lifestyle, I would rather not live it.

    But we do get around quite easily, we manage to have fun in spite of all this, in this internet-age, there is really no way of limiting people!


    that's interesting, if nothing more I would expect a real strong spirit in the youth of Iran, not necessarily rebellious but a spirit that won't be held down .....not sure if i'm articulating what i'm trying to say but I'm glad you're here to share your perspective with (most) of us westerners!
  6. Nice one Ali, good to know you a bit better.
  7. Originally posted by Ali709:First of all, thanks everyone for the nice comments...I'd like to thank the academy...ok, let's not get carried away
    Hhahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahaaaaaaaaa
  8. Nice interview Ali!

    Originally posted by Ali709:[..]

    I'm not proud of it. No, I don't like this system. It isn't part of our culture or even part of our religion, Islam has much more freedom in it than some muslims see these days. I do not agree with the ideals of that ministry, it is part of this government, it isn't what we want.

    But there are other conservative and hardliner people in Iran who approve this system, they are scared of the new wave, they don't want their children and the country's young to listen to western music (made in the west or in Iran), but this is just an example...their view is this: limit them, lock them down, don't let them see anything, so that they stay safe and have a healthy life.

    My view is, why stay safe and have a healthy life, if I'm locked down and limited? I wouldn't like that lifestyle, I would rather not live it.

    But we do get around quite easily, we manage to have fun in spite of all this, in this internet-age, there is really no way of limiting people!

    Would you move to a different country to get away from that system? Or are you willing to deal with it?


  9. It depends. So far this system hasn't caused me major problems, they have their system and I have mine, I walk through it...so right now it can't be a reason to walk away from my homeland. But I know many people, artists, musicians and movie makers who do move to a different country because of these limitations. These are the people whose life are affected directly by these rules, financially and emotionally.
  10. Originally posted by Ali709:[..]

    It depends. So far this system hasn't caused me major problems, they have their system and I have mine, I walk through it...so right now it can't be a reason to walk away from my homeland. But I know many people, artists, musicians and movie makers who do move to a different country because of these limitations. These are the people whose life are affected directly by these rules, financially and emotionally.

    Okay I get it Boy I feel lucky right now Our Gov isn't controlling over our entertainment and such, it's just run by idiots


  11. hopefully after Nov 4th we won't have idiots in the white house...
  12. Originally posted by Ali709:[..]
    But I know many people, artists, musicians and movie makers who do move to a different country because of these limitations. These are the people whose life are affected directly by these rules, financially and emotionally.

    what do you think of Salman Rushdie?


    Saaaaraaaah