As almost anyone who knows me will tell you, I can’t live without music. Any genre, I need music to live. As a result, the local music scene in Armenia has often disappointed me. Usually, it’s government connections and sponsors that determine if an artist is succesful or not. It’s certainly not the market as such. Of course, there are some exceptions to this rule, but generally speaking, if you haven’t a rich sponsor you’re not going to get very far.

Still, things have improved since I started to write on music in Armenia, and recently I discovered an old article written nearly seven years ago that got me into trouble at the time, and a threat from Nune Yesayan’s sugar daddy because I dared to suggest their were other artists also worthy of support in Armenia.

Nune started her career singing Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston covers before Arthur Grigorian developed her talents at the National Song Theatre, and while Tata performs original music, Nune sings songs that others have recorded before, fusing her interpretations with pop, and some would argue, rabiz. Due to lack of finance, other contemporary artists cannot afford to produce albums, and as a result, popular music from the West is more popular among youth in Armenia, regardless of the popularity of the “Armenian Madonna” in the Diaspora.

Contemporary Armenian music must take its place alongside the traditional, and structures such as the National Song Theatre of Armenia are attempting to create a balance between established and developing styles. “If we concern ourselves solely with the past we can not live,” explained Arthur Grigorian, Musical Director of the National Song Theatre, in an interview for The Armenian Weekly last year [see Armenian Weekly, 9 October 1999]. “We must also define our culture for today so that we can live tomorrow.”

Artists such as Nune Yessayan, Shushan Bedrossian, and Grisha Aghakanian were all developed at the National Song Theatre, and Grigorian continues to nurture potential stars for the future such as Alla Levonyan and Varduhi Vardanian. Vardanian in particular, has received numerous awards throughout the former Soviet Union for her music, but like Alla Levonyan, has not been able to produce an album because of the poor economic situation in the Republic. Regardless, artists are writing new material that could compete with the influx of Western influences if only finance was available.

Unfortunately, a lot of that potential never amounted to anything much. Sure, their names are now well known in the Diaspora and they have sponsors now, but perhaps with the exception of Alla Levonyan, the music they produce is quite dreary, dull and mediocre. That’s subjective, of course, but most young Armenians will agree. As a result, I’ve since started to look into alternative musical culture in Armenia, and specifically rock.

Nevertheless, there are some positive developments in there somewhere, and it was a pleasure to meet up with the founder of Pomegranate Music and new Executive Director of Yeraz Art, Raffi Meneshian, yesterday.

YerazArt is a U.S based organization with a mission to discover, nurture and promote the Armenian musical talent of tomorrow. We believe Art is one of the best means to perpetuate our heritage and culture and thus it is as vitally important as ever to support Armenia’s new generation of creative and performing artists. Through YerazArt we want provide to our talented young generation the promise of the future and the opportunity to expose their talents throughout the globe.

Anyway, Raffi had some stuff to do after our chat in the morning about some potential web design and photography work for Yeraz Art, and I had time to kill before meeting Edik at Hetq Online, I tagged along. We ended up making an impromptu call on the Armenian Music Center where its Director was coincidently chatting to one of Raffi’s potential artists, Lilit Pipoyan. Over at Cilicia.com’s Life in the Armenian Diaspora, Raffi has already blogged about the visit.

It was my intention to offer our Pomegranate products to this company for an elegant and cost effective local printing so Armenians in Hayastan can enjoy our music, instead of buying illegal copies at the Vernisage for $4 or originals for $20 at high end stores. When I asked to see the owner of Armenian Music Center, I was greeted by a very nice woman who informed me that the owner was ready to see me. I asked Onnik to join me to see how this whole negotiation unfolds.

As I walked into the backroom of the store, it was almost a scene from Central Casting. A fairly robust man with a beard smoking a cigarette was behind the desk with two guests seated in front of him. Ironically, one of the guests sitting down were a potential artist I am thinking of signing. However, shifting gears, the owner and I engaged in a 15 minute negotiation process in both Armenian and English that didn’t eventually lead anywhere. Yet, for me, the fascinating thing was that there is a small, but growing local respect for homegrown artists and their CD’s. In the case of Alla Levonyan, she enters into a contract with Armenian Music Center and gets a cut of every album sold. The retail price is between $8- $10 depending on which store you go to. Armenian Music Center produces the CD’s locally and as far as I’ve seen, no copies are made of their product here in Armenia. Thus, in a way, the artists are protected.

The introduction of mid priced items for the local market is a great sign for Armenia. Unfortunately, artists that do not reside in Armenia will be pirated. However, Armenian Music Center has a distinct brand with their hologram logo, Digipak design, and overall consistent look sold at a nice price that keep the pirates away.

Anyway, I got the impression that these guys knew what they were doing although the potential market still remains pitifully small considering the size of the Diaspora. However, there’s no doubt that compared to 1999-2000 when I wrote a whole series of articles on local contemporary music and the problem of piracy and copyright infingement, things have improved quite significantly. Maybe I don’t like much of the music being produced, or the fact that it covers few genres other than teenage pop, but at least it’s there.

Incidently, some of my photo work of young local classical musicians for Raffi and Yeraz Art is here.