Armenian Youth: Ready to Rock?

Hetq Online, October 17, 2005

On September 2, 2005, Yerevan staged its first international rock
festival, Rock ‘n People, in the capital’s central Republic Square. In
a country where most “live” pop music concerts – a music genre much
preferred over rock – are lip-synched, there are many obstacles to
overcome. However, the organizers of the festival were convinced that
audiences in Armenia would prefer to hear music being played live.

Sound checks, a relatively new phenomenon in the country, can prove
problematic. During the middle of a sound check by Empyray, a band
typified by heavy bass and drum rhythms as well as searing guitar
solos, an official from the nearby Ministry of Foreign Affairs
requested that preparations for the concert be put on hold for half
an hour while an important diplomatic meeting took place.

The number of police, including Ministry of Interior troops deployed
as security for the event, also surprised many. Although the festival
would only attract a few thousand people, hundreds of police assembled
in front of the stage. “Perhaps they think we’ll start a riot,” said
one young rock fan, arriving early to watch the main stage being set
up. “Maybe they like rock music,” joked another.

The location, flanked on all sides by government buildings, a luxury
hotel and the National Art Gallery, might not seem the most appropriate
of venues to stage a rock concert, but with sponsors such as Radio
Van and Viva Cell involved, permission was granted. Viva Cell, the
long awaited competitor to ArmenTel, has been consistent in targeting
its advertising and promotional campaigns towards youth.

Yerevan hasn’t seen a rock festival in such a high profile location
since the end of the Communist era. Even today, many consider the last
years of the Soviet Union to be the heyday of Armenian rock. Bands
such as Asbarez had huge followings and others even had a role to
play as ethnic conflict between Armenians and Azerbaijanis erupted
over the predominantly ethnically Armenian populated territory of
Nagorno Karabakh.

In 1989, for instance, Vostan Hayots took their set based on the 1915
Armenian genocide by Ottoman Turkey throughout the country and even
performed in Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno Karabakh. The next
day, Soviet troops confiscated their equipment.

“We soon earned the reputation for arriving somewhere just before
trouble broke out,” remembers Hovhannes Kourghinyan, Vostan Hayot’s
vocalist. “When we went to Agarak [in Southern Armenia] there were
clashes between Armenians and Azerbaijanis and the same happened
in Kapan. We even brought information from Meghri to the Karabakh
Committee. A few people knew what was going to happen and were getting
ready by arming themselves. We were involved in that.”

Gradually, as tensions with Azerbaijan over Karabakh turned into
full-scale war, rock music became less and less popular in Armenia. In
particular, military conscription put an end to the careers of many
young and promising rock musicians. The electricity crisis of the
early nineties also forced many others to find work abroad. “Without
electricity you really can’t play rock music,” says Kourghinyan,
“It’s as simple as that.”

Other musicians were more fortunate, however. Hripsime Jangiryan,
wife of Eduard Abrahamyan, lead singer with Manic Depressive Psychosis
(MDP), remembers how the band assembled a hundred fans in Yerevan’s
Agricultural College in 1993 when the capital was otherwise deprived
of electricity. At the time, Abrahamyan worked as an electrician at
the college, one of the few buildings supplied with power.

A bottle of cognac convinced the college’s elderly security guard to
leave, and the premises became MDP’s to use.

But, even with electricity supplies now constant and Armenia’s
economy well on the mend, there are few people who listen to rock
music in the Republic. Instead, contemporary singers and musicians
are reliant on the support of government-connected businessmen rather
than CD sales to sustain their careers.

Even among those young Armenians that do like rock, however, many say
they instead prefer foreign bands. “In the nineties there were maybe
20 or 30 rock groups in Armenia,” says MDP’s Abrahamyan. “However,
after those difficult years, many left for England, the United States
and Russia. As a result, the market is under-developed and when the
quality of rock music deteriorated, the audience instead turned to
Western groups.”

Attracting listeners is also an ongoing obstacle, especially as rock
music is starved of exposure in the mainstream media. Live concerts
are also out because many young rock fans find it difficult to pay
the 1,000-1,500 drams [$2-$3] entrance fee to Yerevan’s two rock
clubs. Pricing tickets higher – over $15 – can lead to inadequate
sales and cancellations, as one three-day-event planned this August
near Lake Sevan showed.

Armenia’s large Diaspora, a potential market for Armenian music, is
also off-limits to local rock bands because ethnic Armenians living
abroad instead prefer to listen to music that serves a nostalgic or
nationalistic purpose. Even Bambir, a charismatic young band from
Gyumri that is fast earning a reputation with its eccentric live
performances in Yerevan, has so far been unable to find an audience
outside of Armenia.

Narek Barseghyan, Bambir’s 21-year-old guitarist, says that young
Armenians want something different, but a monopoly on the music
industry prevents rock bands from being shown on television or played
on the radio. He also says that when compared to other former Soviet
republics, Armenians are more conservative in their mentality. “In
Georgia, it’s different,” he says. “Here, if you have long hair,
people call you a gypsy.”

Despite the problems, however, Artyom Ayvazyan, president of the
Antennae non-governmental organization (NGO) and the main organizer of
the rock festival, is optimistic. In the past, national rock festivals
in Yerevan have attracted audiences of around 500. The free festival
staged on 2 September, however, attracted at least 2,000 people as
well as rock bands from neighboring Georgia.

“It’s true that rock music doesn’t attract a large audience in
Armenia,” he admits. “However, there are many people who want to listen
to something different, even if they don’t yet know what. Although
very few rock groups are played on the radio, there was almost
nothing before.”

Marieke Kitzen, a Dutch volunteer working with the Bem Youth
Progressive Action Center, a local NGO that considers the development
of youth culture key to involving young Armenians in the country’s
socio-political life, agrees. “I thought the rock concert was a great
success, although at the beginning, when there were more police than
spectators, I had my doubts if rock in Armenia would ever work,”
she says.

Text and Photos by Onnik Krikorian

—
From: Baghdasarian