Hope, Fear and Dance Dance Dance: Popular Music in 1960s Iran

In the decades preceding Iran's 1979 revolution, the country underwent rapid cultural change, implemented in part by a monarchic regime seeking to 'modernize' the nation. As Iran's then Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, increased his personal power in the 1960s, many Iranians resented aspects of his policy of 'westernization'. This resentment was a significant factor in the emerging revolutionary movement. At the same time, many Iranians welcomed aspects of what they saw as western modernity, including its effects on popular music. Iranian popular culture changed most radically in the 1960s, when popular music shifted from the styles seen as 'eastern' that were prominent in the 1950s to the 'westernized' styles that would dominate the 1970s. This article examines the complexities of this shift, focusing on the music of popular singers Googoosh, Delkash, Vigen, Susan and Aghasi, as well as beat bands such as the Rebels. It analyses the effects on musical practices of cinema, television and the gap between rich and poor in 1960s Iran, as well as the problematic notions of modernity and 'the West'. Finally, the article considers the position of 1960s Iranian popular music today, especially its role as an object of nostalgia in Iran and the diaspora.