Donnerstag, 19. Februar 2015

Armenia supplies ESC with a memorial song

This was the (now modified) news of German braoadcaster NDR, and we will still read many of such headlines until May. These headlines belong to the jargon of the Eurovision Song Contest. But trivial jargon of Eurovision hides more and more wickedness. Meanwhile the gap between trivial jargon and wickedness comes to limits of tolerance. Referring to this example I'd like to explain how the jargon of ESC promotes a military-oriented ideology and that geopolitical strategies are implied as popular mainstream. 

Armenia wants to remind of a genocide 100 years ago. To put it precisely: Armenia wants to present a "song about mass murder" in a commercial competition between throwaway music, point tables, funky hairstyles, unconventional makeup, fireworks, windmachines, transvestites, trash and gossip. Audience and jury have to decide whether the "genocide memorial song" is lovely or not. This is impious. Banal phrases about unity, peace and tolerance make the concerns not more honorable. The true headline could be 

Armenia abuses genocide and ESC with commemorative song
Next linguistic confusion: In ESC-jargon usually the musical contributions are left to the country they represent. One should be aware that this linguistic imprecision operates with a military-oriented ideology, because it seems that not musicians but countries fight against each other. 

In this example the headline is almost a lie. The name Armenia conceals an unspecified delegation with one spokeswoman called Gohar Gasparyan. The Armenians were not yet involved in developing the concept nor with a pre-selction or voting. It is not even clear whether these plans have been developed in Armenia and by Armenians at all. 

What kind of musicians believe that a song about genocide should not be missed on any Eurovision’s Party? 
None. The idea is obviously not created in artistic circles. Neither composer, author nor interpreters are mentioned in Gasparyan’s notice. It is only emphasized the idea of an artificial compilation of band: performers from 5 continents and a performer from Armenia will act as band "Genealogy". It seems that the musicians were selected after examination of conscience and birth certificate: "All our participants are of Armenian origin". I bet that the names will step by step published as part of the strategy of communication. 

Commemoration or propaganda? 
What does all this have to do with pop music and a music competition? I would appreciate if the EBU would stop this concept in order to protect public from a strategy build up by an aggressive communication. But EBU will probalby only examine the song. 

EBU should remember: Their most prominent fan is still mass murder Breivik and his preferences have has nothing to do with the trivial songs. In Breiviks opinion the songs are “crap”. It seems that Breivik felt attrackted to an aggressive communication against Eastern European countries and countries with Islamic tradition. The concept of Armenia feeds this attitude. 

EBU promised to check the song only because the Azerbaijanis asked them to do so. And it is not difficult to foresee that the song will be trivial. I am afraid that the result will be that consumers are delivered to an explosive discourse, which hardly anyone will be able to cope with. In this I see a 

Geopolitical Strategy 
Not the song, but the concept is stoking a friend-or-foe scheme. It aims to destroy the cohesion of countries and their partnership with each other. The Azerbaijanis feel already provoked. With the title "Do Not Deny" the Turks should consider their political efforts to resolve the historical dispute about the genocide undermined. The Russians will not be unconcerned about conflicts of former Soviet republics on their borders. And what does the population in Armenia think of this conept? As these countries have a large diaspora, disputes could spread to a lot of countries... 

Who comes up with such concepts? 
I maintain: military strategists. Their influence on the ESC is not new. The constant stirring up an East-West conflict and verbal attacks against non-NATO countries as Russia, Belarus and Azerbaijan on websites of the NDR and German Fan-Sites have long gone beyond the scope of a harmless pop music competition. An article in the Focus of November 2013 aroused even the impression that the "Leaders of Eurovision" would have to be brought in line with invented scenarios, demonization and fear-mongering. By the way: Would one of the non-NATO countries announce such a diaspora concept, there would be an outcry because of voting fraud! In the case of Armenia, the banal headline of NDR is changed into the pathetic - and the diaspora voting does not exist. 

In this example we can see how propaganda is to anticipate politics. Frame and jargon of the ESC is trivialized and broadcasters, fanclubs and media are abused as mouthpieces. In this way geopolitical games appear as popular mainstream. And the top of all: At the end the success of this influence may be measured by means of an international telephone inquiry.

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