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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/asia-pacific/4177622.stm

Tuesday, 23 August 2005, 18:39 GMT 19:39 UK

Turkmenistan bans recorded music

Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov has banned the playing of recorded music at all public events, on television and at weddings.

In a decree, Mr Niyazov said there was a need to protect Turkmen culture from "negative influences".

This is the latest move by the authoritarian president to minimise foreign influence in the isolated former Soviet state, analysts say.

He has already banned opera and ballet, describing them as "unnecessary".

'True culture'

Mr Niyazov's decree was published in the official daily newspaper Neitralny Turkmenistan (Neutral Turkmenistan).

NIAYZOV'S DECREES

banned opera and ballet
forbade long hair or beards for young men
banned car radios
required video monitors in all public places
closed all hospitals, except in the capital, Ashgabat
renamed some calendar months after the president and his mother


It banned sound recordings "at musical performances on state holidays, in broadcasts by Turkmen television channels, at all cultural events organised by state... in places of mass assembly and at weddings and celebrations organised by the public".

The president was quoted by the newspaper as saying the move aimed to "protect true culture, including the musical and singing traditions of the Turkmen people".

And in comments broadcast on state television, Mr Niyazov told his cabinet:

"Unfortunately, one can see on television old voiceless singers lip-synching their old songs.

"Don't kill talents by using lip-synching... create our new culture."

Personality cult

Mr Niyazov - known as Turkmenbashi, or father of the Turkmen - has ruled the desert state since the Soviet times.

He has created a vast personality cult around himself, issuing decrees regulating behaviour in all walks of life.

In 2001, Mr Niyazov - proclaimed the president for life - called for youths not to get gold tooth caps, also urging a crackdown on young men wearing beards or long hair.

Pictures of the president adorn public buildings and his book - intended as a moral and spiritual guide - is compulsory reading throughout Turkmenistan.

To many, his rule is alarmingly authoritarian, BBC Eurasia editor Catherine Davis says.

People who know him say he appears to believe he was sent by God to lead his nation into what he calls a "Golden Age", our editor says.

Beyond the elaborate building projects in the capital lies an impoverished country, where surveillance is commonplace and any public opposition a rare event, she adds.

During the worst Stalin times my parents could not listen to rock or jazz! Only after 1954 the rules have changed.

Despite being "discouraged" by the Soviet government under Stalin, jazz was always popular in the USSR, even during Stalin's times. Varlamov and Utyosov are good examples. (Watch the video I sent you - "I return your portrait".) The evolution in jazz continued for decades, with the Polish-Soviet singer Edita Piekha singing some very catchy melodies with the ensemble "Friendship".

Until the late 1970s, the closest to rock that could be found among Soviet artists was a very fast-paced pop. "True" rock began in the late 1970s with such groups as "Time Machine". The 1980s created a true explosion in rock, with groups like "Kino", "Sankt-Peterburg", and so on.

There's a great book written in 1992 by the Petersburg journalist Sadchikov called "Rendezvous with the stars" that gives a history of the evolution of Soviet pop and especially rock in the 1980s to the end of the Soviet era, as well as how the industry was just beginning to cope with the recent end of the USSR: total freedom to do whatever, whenever, but also with a total lack of guarantees for stability and a paying job.

It would also seem that any lip-synced performances have also been banned.

No one will complain that the lip-synching has been banned... except, of course, for the artists who earn a living by pretending to sing on stage. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> But the number of foreign stars in Turkmenistan, even from former Soviet republics, is EXTREMELY low these days, anyway.

I have said for YEARS that Turkmenistan should be expelled from the Commonwealth of Independent States. The way the country is being run is disastrous. The president of Turkmenistan is also notorious for not attending CIS meetings with the other leaders... so what is the point anymore? He will just do whatever he wants, period.

(The other countries I would like to see out of the CIS are Georgia and Moldavia.)

I can understand banning lip synching because it takes away from true music. Milli Vanilli is an example of a band that was quite popular and got caught lip-synching. Today's lip-synching acts include Shania Twain (who so blatantly does it....), and I'd suspect a decent amount of the highly choreographed and quick paced music (i.e. Britney Spears and so on). Banning music is also good to some extent because it can get rid of those who have no talent, but also block good talent. Sometimes I wonder what's considered singing anymore when you have Britney Spears pretty much speaking in rhythm with her music and having her voice synthesized and messed with electronically.

Now, unto censorship. I had discussion with someone recently on censorship. There was a program on TV that showed the Polish music festival Opole and how censorship worked there. Certain lyrics that were believed to stir anti-Soviet/anti-current Polish government feelings were forced to be changed. Also, naturally any songs about narcotics had to be changed.

I just realized the rock music could not be banned because... there was no rock in that time but jazz was bannced as well as American westerns. My mother still remember the first time she COULD watch a first western in the cinema. Maybe this is why she always liked westerns <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Lip-synching in Russia is an incredible problem, too. On concerts shown on TV, AT LEAST 90% (very often, it is a full 100%!) of all the performances are mimed. Even in regular concerts that performers give, there is very little live audio - usually only the talking in between the songs. Some countries, such as Russia and Belarus, have tried to make a law saying mimed concerts must cost less, and the audience must be informed before mimed songs that it's not live, but so far, nothing concrete has happened with it.