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| The Azerbaijani Ashiq Music Group Dalgha, led by Changiz Mahdipur. |
The claim that “music has no borders” is valid only when the coordinates of this art are tied to the concept of pleasure. That is, any music—regardless of its style, form, or language—is worth listening to if it brings about pleasure, and otherwise is nothing but self-torture. Yet, most of the time, this claim is an ideological reflection of a kind of social segregation; when its proponents erase musical boundaries only in opposition to the discordant taste of the “other,” while at other times, they themselves enforce borders. Interestingly, this supposed borderlessness seems to apply only to music, as if it doesn’t hold true for painting, sculpture, or other art forms!
With rare exceptions, music is essentially about borders. In two senses: first, music itself, which emerges from a culture, mentality, and identity tied to it; and second, its audience, who assign a specific identity to their own taste. And identity is nothing but demarcation and boundary-making.
Most people who listen to Mohammad-Reza Shajarian see him as a symbol of authenticity, sophistication, high class, and even aristocracy. Many of them prefer him not simply for the music itself, but for these associated mentalities and notions, which have little to do with the art. Beneath these preferences often lies a hidden form of racism and hostility toward the “other.” Those who count Amir Tataloo as their favorite singer rarely mock Shajarian’s fans. Yet, without doubt, some of Shajarian’s listeners regard Tataloo and his fans as inferior. Here, the audience wields music as an instrument of segregation—segregation born neither of artistic pleasure nor artistic critique. Rather, it is a class-based distinction tinged with a kind of “intellectual racism.” A distinction endorsed by everyone from university professors to art critics, from top politicians to ordinary people. In this framework, Shajarian’s listeners are judged as cultivated, civilized, and authentic, while Tataloo’s listeners are judged as vulgar, mediocre, and lacking authenticity. In such a view, by choosing music, the audience defines their own social status and engages in a form of social boundary-making.
Meanwhile, there is another form of encounter—one in which non-Persian musical tastes are disparaged. This begins with the phrase “music has no borders.” If, for instance, a Turk prefers their own native music and their choices exclude Persian music altogether, they will be scorned. For the scorning party, this Turk’s behavior toward music is primitive and backward. They must also listen to Persian music, and to disguise this coercion in a way that does not appear racist, it is dressed up with the intellectual-sounding phrase “music has no borders,” wrapped in a coating of polite euphemisms.
But if this borderlessness in music truly exists, why does it not apply when comparing fans of Amir Tataloo and Mohammad-Reza Shajarian? Where does this blatant contradiction come from? In the case of Tataloo and Shajarian, the boundary is explicit. Since both produce Persian music, the demarcation is wielded as a tool to flaunt class and cultivated taste, often linked to one’s class origins—a sort of internal family demarcation. This boundary-making is, in a sense, racial as well. Yet when facing that Turk, the borders are erased, because the intention is to push them outside the scope of their native culture and impose foreign cultural elements on them. In this way, music—and the pseudo-intellectual posturing around it—becomes a tool of homogenization and alienation.
Interestingly, when that same Turk prefers exclusively Western music—say, in English—the phrase “music has no borders” is rarely invoked. Because in their view, it is only the music of Iran’s non-Persian ethnic groups that must be invalidated. This group, when faced with Western cultural products—language, music, cinema, and so on—becomes flustered, insecure, servile, and submissive. Even if, in dealing with Western individuals themselves, their comments and statements are notoriously vulgar and offensive.
Keywords: Music, Borders, Class Distinction, Racism, Identity, Shajarian, Tataloo, Cultural Alienation, Sociomusicology