Morteza Pashaei, the Sorrow of the Autumn Generation

Nine-year-old Baran in Tehran says one of the most enjoyable moments of her life is listening to Morteza Pashaei's songs when her mother picks her up from school. Coincidentally, I have another Iranian friend of the same age named Dela who lives in London and is a fan of the famous music group One Direction, a group made up of five handsome and talented English young men. The relationship of these two children with their favorite singers reflects a type of relationship between middle-class children and mainstream or pop music in the contemporary world. I refrain from using the term 'popular music' for this type of music to avoid falling into the elitism that this term carries. The connection with urban and modern mainstream music begins from the first days of children's engagement with entertaining media, supported by a stream of advertising, fashion culture, and media stars. Thus, the listener's relationship with this type of music is shaped in a specific listening space that leads to a shared experience among child, adolescent, and young listeners, culminating in the formation of a broad fan base. The meaning of this type of music is not only embedded in the lyrics or a song performed by the artist but is shaped in the reciprocal relationship between the singer and the audience in the listening space. This process, which is one of the most important trends in the sociology of mainstream music, is as widespread in Tehran and major cities of Iran as it is in London. Mainstream music in a post-industrial and globalized society creates its cultural values, establishing enjoyable listening habits in daily life, rituals, and listening practices, and has heroes or stars that give it social and cultural permanence, ultimately introducing a set of specific cultural signs and symbols into the larger culture in which it has grown. In this way, the stars and symbols of mainstream music reflect a social transformation in a specific generation that can connect with these stars and cultural symbols. However, in different societies, each of these stars creates the specific values of their own society, which is what differentiates the values embedded in Morteza Pashaei's mainstream music from those in One Direction's music. The main theme of Morteza Pashaei's songs and One Direction's is the romantic dialogue between young girls and boys. For example, the famous song 'Steal My Girl' describes a competition that a lovesick boy has with other boys who want to win his girlfriend's heart. Or the new song 'Night Changes' narrates a lover's conflict between his girlfriend's dreams and the realities of everyday life. The lovesick boy reminds the girl that everything passes, and it is us who remain. However, unlike One Direction's songs, which are caught up in narrating external adventures in romantic relationships, Pashaei's songs are more narratives of the internal adventures of love, which do not even provide any description of the face and behavior of his girlfriend. For example, in the song 'There is Someone,' the lover worries that his beloved might know he is dying. In his narrative, both the boy and the girl cry, but neither can speak to each other. The atmosphere of the relationship is a silent one. The fundamental image of the song is a letter soaked in tears that ultimately remains unread. In most of Pashaei's songs, these recurring and main concepts can be seen: 'How dark this scene of leaving is, it keeps repeating in my life,' 'It has become our habit to weave dreams,' 'We die to live,' 'We are heroes and we become losers,' 'For many, our wish is a memory'... But this bitter and sorrowful space between two lovers is often shared. In the song 'My Worry,' which has been re-sung by school students in Iran, both the lover and the beloved are worried about each other's disappointment and fatigue and still live in the space of childhood memories. Thus, despite the sorrow and pain of separation, a shared feeling of love connects the lover and beloved, and the sweetness of love for each other overcomes the bitterness of the space. The feeling of being in love and accepting mutual worry is the only ray of hope depicted in a world where everything is heading towards destruction and no relationship lasts. In Pashaei's songs, the repeated and unstable bonds and breakups are expressed in the language of complaints and desired and undesired quarrels. These songs, unlike pre-revolutionary pop songs in Iran, largely distance themselves from the romantic background and the admiring descriptions of the beloved. In Pashaei's songs, the repeated and unstable bonds and breakups are expressed in the language of complaints and desired and undesired quarrels. These songs, unlike pre-revolutionary songs or their post-revolutionary followers, accept the experience of multiple bonds and breakups and loves as a real background and a repeated game, distancing themselves from the myth of singular love. In these songs, one can observe the reconstruction of relationships that existed in the 1970s and 1980s between girls and boys in Iran. Secret relationships that form in family gatherings and underground parties, and the lack of a shared communicative space becomes a factor for the prevalence of broken relationships, but the memories of these relationships are always revived for a generation that is or has been engaged in them through music like Morteza Pashaei's songs. One of the best examples of this atmosphere in Pashaei's works is the song 'Autumn Era,' which was, by coincidence, banned from being broadcast by state media. This ban itself is one of the factors that makes this type of pop music more appealing today in Iran and gives its listeners a sense of resistance against the prevailing values that oppose their values. This type of music owes part of its media success to remaining on the border between underground music and licensed music. Thus, this type of music is a sign of the efforts of lovesick youth to avoid being harmed in the tense political atmosphere in Iran. This mainstream music is somewhat reflective of the isolation from a policy that young lovers dislike but do not want to engage in opposing it. This generation is not particularly fond of politicians, whether they are in power or have been ousted. From the perspective of these young people, the game of love and life is separate from the game of politics. Music like Pashaei's, although less subject to censorship, is indirectly influenced in form and content by censorship. The limited connection of this music with lyricists from previous generations or those with a higher literary knowledge has placed this music in connection with a specific group of lyricists who are not well-known in Iranian literary society and do not enjoy the literary value favored by elites. However, they are close to the practical language of youth in the streets. Most of Pashaei's famous songs are written by Mehrzad Amirkhani, who has also performed some songs, but comparing the songs performed by Morteza Pashaei with other songs by Amirkhani shows that, considering that Morteza himself is the arranger of most of his works, he has been able to imprint his selective signs on these works well. The works performed by Morteza, compared to similar works of his contemporaries, are less bound by imitation of pre-revolutionary pop music stars in Iran. Also, his personal atmosphere and simple and sincere tone and voice, largely free of sonic embellishments, separate him from a group of pop music singers of his time, such as Mohsen Namjoo or Mohsen Chavoshi. Based on this, one can consider the enthusiasts of Pashaei, who in 2012 spoke of the birth of a new star in Iranian pop music, as credible. Pashaei had his own musical characteristics and unique performance style. The result of Pashaei's efforts was songs that quickly captivated his contemporaries and younger teenagers, especially girls. Undoubtedly, his presence on television helped him become more recognized and allowed him to participate in social arenas and obtain licenses for his concerts. This presence contributed to Pashaei's greater popularity among his peers as well. From a demographic perspective, Morteza Pashaei and his lyricists and other well-known pop singers in Iran belong to the generation born in the 1980s in Iran. A generation shaped by the war and the propaganda of the early years following the Iran-Iraq war in schools, media, and home environments, which forms an unforgettable part of their memories and experiences. On the other hand, this generation experienced the first freer experiences in private life and familiarity with music and art, which faced more restrictions in the 1980s. The freer experiences in the 1990s gave them a different perspective on life compared to their politically charged parents from the revolutionary or revolution-affected generations of the 1950s and 1960s. This generation paved the way that was eagerly followed by those born in the 1990s and teenagers of the 2000s. In such a context, a statistical look shows why Morteza Pashaei's fans enjoy such widespread social appeal: those born in the early 1980s in the current population of Iran are about 7 million. Those born in the second half of the 1980s comprise about 8.5 million, and those born in the first half of the 1990s are about 8 million. Therefore, even if we ignore younger demographics like those born in the second half of the 1990s and the first half of the 2000s (who are somewhat influenced by a different generation and more by global media, and some of whom are not part of the active population), we can estimate that the demographic living in the space of Morteza Pashaei's songs is around 23 million, of which about 16.5 million live in cities. Thus, it can be concluded that Pashaei's music is one of the most popular among the most active generation of the Iranian people. This demographic assessment indicates that the extensive presence of Morteza Pashaei's fans represents his belonging to the atmosphere of avoiding politics and a love-focused narrative of the music stars of the 1980s. Attention to the social and cultural characteristics of the generation of singers and their fans, while helping us understand the nature of current mainstream music in Iran and its sociology, should not lead us to overlook the aesthetic essence of these works. The same enchanting essences that revive the joy of thinking about the hidden feelings of the generation of girls and boys in isolation in Iran. An essence of poetry, music, and shared memories that keeps the passion of love alive in a space full of excuses for despair, sorrow, silence, and grief, transforming a bitter era into a sorrowful yet memorable one like the Autumn Era of Iran.