The Rocker of Tehran

So I’m really sick of the western media’s over glorification of Arab and Muslim bands just because they are such and play heavy metal or hard rock, especially that they usually suck at it. Somehow playing lousy head banging musing is akin to the resurgence of civilization in this savage world.

So I almost tuned away when NPR had another report about the Iranian rock band Hypernova. I hesitated because the alternative is some Jesus channel, only to find out that these guys are not bad, and I’m usually not a fan of the devil’s music. I especially liked that the lead guitarist did not understand why all the fuss when they first came of the US given that they sucked at the time.

Overall a good interview, though he’s still stuck in a few paradigms of naiveté, like assuming he should be a good [Iranian] guy in the official eye of America because he’s an artist, with the implication that the US has a problem with his countrymen because they are baddies, you know, a side effect of pushing back on external meddling and imperialist interventionism.

Some of the music is pretty cool, Viva La Resistance for example taking to task the Iranian regime… Further highlighting the media’s ignorance and disconnect is their embrace of such bands with the attitude that had they been American they would have been mainstream. Anything but, any American-based band or singer doing something remotely close to “Viva la Resistance” would be considered underground and never allowed near a major label… hell, the Dixi Chicks were excommunicated from the pick-up truck community for far less than that.

I could not find this song on Youtube, but found this one about the 17 year old girl he fell in love with and who is testing his patience… also anti-authoritarian. Confusing? May be, so here is Will summing it up in the common man’s English for you:

“I blame the internalization of clash of civilizations thesis, long running orientalist thought on the Arabs and Muslims, and so much media based on othering. That Americans are constantly reporting on such banal episodes of cross-cutting socio-cultural practices only shows how out of touch with the world the US is.”

Related posts:

1. Another Unholy Alliance?
2. He Who Cannot Dance: The Blame Game
3. I really didn’t mean to ramble on
4. Shaytan’s Power Chord
5. US Tops State Sponsors Of Terrorism List