Iranian Music and Popular Entertainment

<p>In <i>Iranian Music and Popular Entertainment </i> GJ Breyley and Sasan Fatemi examine the historically overlooked <i>motrebi </i>milieu with its marginalized characters from <i>luti</i> to <i>gardan koloft</i> and <i>mashti</i> as well as the tenacity of <i>motreb</i> who continued their careers against all odds. They then turn to <i>losanjelesi</i> the most pervasive form of Iranian popular music that developed as <i>motrebi</i> declined and related musical forms in Iran and its diasporic popular cultural centre Los Angeles. For the first time in English the book makes available musical transcriptions analysis and lyrics that illustrate the complexities of this history. As it presents the findings of the authors' years of ethnographic work with the history's protagonists from senior <i>motreb</i> to pop-rock stars the book reveals parallels between the decline of <i>motrebi</i> and the rise of 'modernity.' In the twentieth century the fate of Tehran's<i> motrebi</i> music was shaped by the social and urban polarization that ensued from the modern market economy and <i>losanjelesi </i>would be similarly affected by transnational relations revolution war and migration. </p>