Blogrel says that the damn awful giant LCD screen in Republic Square will soon be finally gone. It was erected a few years ago, as Armenia Now reported way back then, and was meant to be “temporary,” although I think we all knew that it would stay as long as whoever owned it made money and remained in favour with the local authorites who should never allowed it there in the first place.

Where once Vladimir I. Lenin stood bronzed and pointing the way to socialism, an electronic billboard now stands in Yerevan’s Republic Square, broadcasting capitalism and the best of Hollywood action movies, and video clips from the former dictator’s nemesis, the evil west.

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While authorities are looking for a worthy replacement for Lenin they gave permission to AD Technology advertising company to put the 15-meter high billboard where the 18-meter-tall former leader stood until 1991.

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Vahram Gharibjanyan, manager of AD Technology and in charge of technical and program support of the billboard, says he chooses clips of movies that are interesting to spectators: such as “Taxi” and “Terminator”.

The manager himself thinks Lenin’s monument should have stayed, for its historical value. But since the place is vacant, why not fill it with advertisement?

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Ads on the board cost $2 to $8 per minute, depending on the number of times it appears.

Not that I’m against such things in general, but it did look out of place and it always seemed inappropiate to have something blasting sound out in Republic Square surrounded as it was by one luxury hotel, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the main Government building. Besides, Republic Square is not the “heart” of the city that it might once have been.

That honour has since gone to Liberty Square, now full of cafes owned by corrupt government officials and their business associates instead of green grass, trees and park benches intended as an escape from the madness of the urban jungle. Still, the question now remains as to what will replace the advertising screen.

For sure, Lenin won’t be returning anytime soon, no matter what the residents of Lernamerdz might hope. Anyway, as I said, Blogrel has more.

Apparently the capital of Armenia cannot generate enough advertising revenue, for the AD Technology advertising company to keep it running. So what’s it going to be? I caught a discussion on the AR TV two days ago, as to what should be done to the TV, and what kind of a statue would replace it. So even if it’s not really decided yet, the Big Brother will most likely follow Lenin, to go lie down somewhere in the dust.

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When I pulled out my mobile to take a photo of the Big Black Billboard the two girls walking past looked at it in surprise: “Did you know it’s gone?” asked one of them. “Aye, it’s gone!” noted the other.

“So what?” I shouted silently - in my mind. It’s just another idol - dead. It’s just another pretence of westernization leaving us… or to be more pragmatic, just another business idea, which doesn’t work in Armenia. “So what?”.

Well, I for one, am glad it’s gone or is going. To me it always represented how urban planning doesn’t exist in Yerevan, and how corruption and connections define everything. What concerns me now, however, is what will replace it. Unless the decision to erect something else is made in an open and transparent way I dread to think. Even the neon cross that was there temporarily for the 1700th Anniversary of Christianity was kitsch beyond belief.

Still, as long as it isn’t a statue of Robert Kocharian, Serzh Sarkisyan, Gagik Tsarukian (AKA Dodi Gago) , Vladimir Putin or anyone else who considers themselves the new master of Armenia, I can’t complain.

Nune Yesayan lip-syncing, Stepanakert, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2000

Which leads me on to another pet peeve — lip-syncing by the cream of the crop of Armenia’s contemporary music scene. Unfortunately, as the comments section on Narek’s post made over at Cilicia’s Life in Armenia shows, nobody is too convinced that that the stars of the local music scene are worthy of any such accolade. What started the ball rolling, however, was Narek’s contempt for miming to music during public performances.

To begin with, who in Heaven’s name are they kidding ? On at least two occasions this evening, the music began BEFORE the performer(s) actually pretended to perform, and, again, twice the music ended in a fade-out. A fade-out! It’s just the one chap on stage with a microphone, but there’s at least two or three voices singing…! And then this group comes on, all dressed up nicely in old-fashioned, traditional Armenian clothes, going the ashough way with some Sayat Nova. They bring their chairs and musical instruments up front (canon, kamancha, dhol, etc.), and the singers get in line at the back. The music starts, and they barely, barely make it in time to make it look like they’re actually playing, but the real pièce de resistance is the fact that all the music is blasting away from the amplifiers, but there isn’t a single microphone on stage anywhere…! Aboushner!

Seriously, man, such khaydaragoutiun!

The comments section expands on this contentious issue, and soon turns into an attack on what almost everybody realizes is a generally corrupt and manufactured local musical scene where stars make their name not based on talent, but rather who they know, who they brown-nose, who they sleep with, or a combination of all three. No doubt about it, the local contemporary music scene in Armenia sucks big time.

The fact remains that alot of Armenian pop artists simply cannot sing and thats the bottom line - and because it’s such normal practise, singers are very comfortable doing it, and lying to their audience. This is part of the reason why in fact, the Armenian music industry is pretty much non existent. No one has respect for these glossy idiots who pretend like they care about the audience. The only people they make music for are themselves and their little circle of pretentious television presenter friends, who consider Artur Grigorian the God of Soul, and Gagik Tsarukyan as the most charitable man in the country. Lav Eli.

That comment was from Blogrel’s Harmick who writes on pop music in Armenia from time to time, but who also raises an interesting fact on Cilicia. In Turkmenistan, lip-syncing has been made illegal to prevent the erosion of the local indigenous culture. That said, I’d much rather Armenia not take any lead from Turkmenbashi and besides, as Zarchka from Life Around Me points out in the comments section, local audiences don’t complain, so on their own head be it.

Some of the audience like Nune lip-syncing, Stepanakert, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2000

Which leads me on to the former Oneworld Multimedia protege herself, a wonderful singer as well as an intermittent blogger and general delight in her own right. On her blog she also decries the local music scene and the increasing tendency for pop singers to team up with rabiz stars probably because most of the population listens to the latter rather than the tripe pushed out as pop music on directly or indirectly State-controlled TV stations.

Even so, it appears that even then, they fail to entertain.

It is terrible! It is outrageous in the case when everyone consider rabiz a low quality music whereas Armenian very famous singers are failing to sing them. Then why are they? Why don’t they busy their own pop music only? Simple, easy – because they don’t create for the sake of art. When I was gathering information regarding the selling of my songs I learnt that everyone now want songs with the rhythm 6/8, which is actually meant to be the traditional Armenian rhythm. I thought “Wow, people are returning to traditional melodies, not bad!!”. I thought so unless it dawned upon me that in reality those songs are welcomed at the restaurants with their feast parties. And if the singers have rabiz joyous songs they are more then welcomed to that restaurants and are well paid. Nothing personal, just people earn money, because the word “show-business” is understood and performed quite differently here.

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Therefore, this is the reason that our Armenian pop-singers are tearing their throats trying to do something close to rabiz singing. After those disappointments, let me sincerely admit that I deeply respected rabiz phenomenon. This doesn’t mean that I will compose 6/8 melodies with rabiz accompaniment in order to sell my songs, just that “Go rabiz, go” ??!!

Well, it’s sad. The music scene stinks here because of a combination of factors. Firstly, the economy is still not sufficiently developed and the internal market too small for most artists to derive a living from album sales and performances alone. Instead, those that find sponsors rely on connections rather than talent to get where they want to be, which is why we have so much shit rising to the surface.

Secondly, I still believe that the local music scene is designed to keep the brains of youth dead. We saw most of Armenia’s pop stars pay the piper during the 2003 presidential and parliamentary elections, as well as last year’s referendum, and I daresay we’ll see the same for next year’s vote too. Already the “honours” have been handed out to artists most consider unworthy of such recognition.

Sad. Depressing, in fact.