POP MUSIC AS KEY TOOL IN ARMENIAN ELECTIONS
By Matthew Collin

The Moscow Times
Feb 4 2008
Russia

As the race for Armenia’s presidency heats up, with candidates hurling
abuse at each other and gunshots fired outside campaign offices, pop
music has emerged as a propaganda tool in this increasingly fierce
struggle for power. Last week, Serzh Sargsyan, the current prime
minister and the favored candidate of the political establishment,
deployed Armenia’s 2008 Eurovision Song Contest hopeful, Sirusho,
as he chased the youth vote.

Sirusho is a cheerful but chaste-looking former child star who seems
to specialize in romantic ballads with an ethnic twist. She is one of
a series of Armenian pop stars who have joined the Sargsyan roadshow
and have publicly supported Serzh.

When it comes to sugar-sweet choruses and faux R&B grooves,
the opposition candidates seem to be lagging behind. But Levon
Ter-Petrosyan, the first president of post-Soviet Armenia who recently
made a dramatic comeback and is a candidate for the top job again, does
have a feisty little ringtone available for download from his web site,
featuring a campaign-trail chant over a breathless house groove. It’s
called "Struggle," which fits nicely with the clenched-fist campaign
logo and Warhol-style portrait on the site.

Meanwhile, Ter-Petrosyan seeks to portray himself as the righteous
avenger riding into town to confront a ruling elite.

And yet none of this comes close to the awesome propaganda
spectacles staged by Mikheil Saakashvili during his recent campaign
for re-election as the president of Georgia. As well as a high-tech
traveling musical revue, there were also specially produced pop songs,
one of which even managed to weave Saakashvili’s policy priorities —
joining NATO and winning back Georgia’s breakaway regions — into a
lyric titled "Misha is Cool."

Inevitably, many pop stars who publicly commit themselves to
politicians are doing it out of self-interest: literally, singing
for their suppers. Ukrainian rocker Oleg Skrypka, one of the musical
heroes of Orange Revolution, once told me that some of those who
played for Viktor Yushchenko during the 2004 election had switched
sides after previously backing his opponent. "Pop is prostitution, so
it was normal for them," Skrypka said. "It was like at a market when
you discuss the price. They discussed the price being offered by
each candidate, but when they saw Yushchenko winning, they became
the No. 1 revolutionaries."

Skrypka, of course, proved his commitment to his cause in subfreezing
temperatures behind the barricades of Kiev. How many other singers
would do the same if they were put to the test?

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress