Fear and Hope, Tears and Laughter: Urban Popular Entertainment in the Early 1960s

This paper investigates some of the diverse forms of musical performance that entertained urban Iranian audiences in the early 1960s, as well as the social and historical conditions that shaped such entertainment. At this time, there were high levels of mobility among sections of Iran’s population, as working people and others moved from Iran’s regions to Tehran, often in search of elusive employment in the face of political and cultural change. This mobility contributed to new interactions among performers and audiences from different backgrounds and the sharing of conventions and tastes in music, humour and related aspects of popular entertainment. Drawing on historical research, ethnographic fieldwork and representations in popular films of the period, such as Gorji Ebadia’s 1960 film 'Bim o Omid' (‘Fear and Hope’), featuring the nine-year-old Googoosh, the paper examines 'ghazal khani', 'ruhowzi' and other musical practices. In this context, 'ghazal khani', the singing of Persian love poetry with free meter and slow theatricality, was a typical genre of choice for many men in Tehran’s more ‘traditional’ quarters, including its underworld. The young Googoosh impersonates the form, and the 'gardan koloft' with whom it was associated, very effectively in 'Bim o Omid'. This paper analyses the cultural context of Googoosh’s performance and the humour, specific to that context, that characterises it. By the 1960s, the popularity of 'ruhowzi', which had been a crucial form of entertainment at family celebrations, had begun to decline. However, its practitioners went to creative lengths to adapt their performances, at least superficially, to changing tastes and attitudes, and to keep 'ruhowzi' alive against all odds. 'Ruhowzi' featured improvisation and transgressive humour, with song lyrics often mocking those perceived as powerful, fashionable, hypocritical or wealthy. Again, cultural change and related shifts in popular humour and satire conditioned the fate of 'ruhowzi', also referenced in 'Bim o Omid'. Googoosh herself emerged in the early 1960s from a 'motrebi' environment, the home of 'ruhowzi' and related musical forms, and the social conditions of the period helped make it possible for her to develop some of the skills she gained in that environment and go on to become the most celebrated star of the ‘new’ world of popular entertainment. This paper throws light on the nature of those social conditions and some of the protagonists of their musical manifestations.