Space of Production of Popular Music in Iran: A Sociological Study with using Qualitative Data

Different research and theoretical approaches have been adopted in the study of the space of music production. The space of production and consumption of culture in Iran as a country in transition is diverse and heterogeneous. Such a diversity and heterogeneity in itself causes problems for this space. The problem of this space, which in this research work has been defined as a small social space, in addition to diversity, is caused by non-constructive interaction of traditional and modern cultures. In this space, at times confronting discourse prepares the ground for non-dynamism of interactions and transfers it into an “amorphous” space. One of the main examples of fully challengeable cultural production and consumption space is the space for production of music in Iran which is favored by the people. Settlement of these problems, their management and control of challenges and struggles is not possible except through deep understanding and sound elucidation of elements, relationships and structures of production space of popular music. In this way, showing ideological interactions of producers and consumers of different types of popular music, by exploring intellectual meaning of such producers and consumers as cultural actors who are considered like subjects in the course of production and consumption, is necessary.  In the present study, which relies on the ethnographic/ sociological research approach in the study of cultural producers, because of the impossibility of conducting a structural research on the space of popular music production in Iran due to lack of reliable statistics on the space of production, We have tried to analyze this space with the aid of a sociological conceptualization at a micro level, using the data collected from two interviews with the official and unofficial producers of popular music in Tehran. In fact this research work, by using qualitative research methodology, has been conducted among active producers and of certain types of popular Iranian and Western music in the city of Tehran as an ideal urban sample with mixed cultural structures.  In order to collect qualitative data to answer the question as to whether the action among the producers of popular music in Iran, as the main constructors of the space of music production, is an ideological action, the focus group technique has been used. The data was collected through five sessions of discussion with two eight-member groups, and was analyzed using the reflective analysis method. The data analysis shows that since the producers of the discussed genres, as the actors of this space, are ideological, the space of production of popular music in Iran is a controversial space where no hybrid of cognitive music is possible. The hybrid of cognitive music specially in western culture is possible. This possibility is a consequence of constitution of cultural field or social space of production and consumption of popular music. From the viewpoint of the authors of the present article the hybrid of cognitive music, like to western cultures, seems to be the only way to overcome the cultural dismorphy existing in the space of music production in Iran.