Some representatives of Armenian show business say the low-quality music and only let’s-party tunes played on radio and television do not help the audience think, while only degrading people’s esthetic tastes. The views were expressed in comments during Monday’s press conference called by a rock singer and a composer.

Empyray rock group soloist Sargis Manukyan points at the most frequently played songs on TV today and says that this rather simplistic and low-quality music is the reflection of the taste of those who order it, i.e. pay for the production of video clips, etc.

(Empyray, founded in 1993, is the best known and popular rock band in Armenia. The group had few appearances on TV and concert halls of late, as they have been busy working on two songs, one of which is written for well-known professional boxer Vic Darchinyan, who will enter the ring under the Empiray-authored tune during his next scheduled fight. Empyray songs also became popular as soundtracks to two serials shown on Shant TV, including a series based on gangster life, Vorogayt, or “Trap”.)

“The music that we have today is in direct correlation with the intellectual level of those investing. The investor today creates music that deprives a person of the capability to think,” argues Manukyan.

According to him, there is a group of singers in Armenia who attend all concerts and a majority of them think of creating songs that could later be played during such festivals.

Songwriter Edgar Gyanjumyan isn’t content with modern Armenian music either.

(Many of Gyanjumyan’s patriotic songs and love ballads written about ten years ago are popular till the present. While the songwriter says that he creates a lot today, he is not interested in appearing much on TV.)

Gyanjumyan says today’s pop climate calls for “a serious approach to music”.

“They put a person into a partying frame of mind as if life is all about partying and having fun only, and they do not cause a person to look into his or her inner world,” says the songwriter.

And Empyray soloist Manukyan urges institutions that popularize music, in particular television companies, to have a policy to protect themselves against low-quality music.

“Poor quality music brings so much money to television companies that they do not show good music in order to avoid juxtaposing good with bad and in order not to lose their customer base,” contends Manukyan, who also called on TV companies to reconsider their social role because “television has a great capacity for educating.”