My beef with Assyrian music lately

A

ASHOOR

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Staff member
Although I have been listening to Assyrian music since I was like 6 back home in the mid 80s (my family even has a recording of me singing Donye Zalmanta at that age lol) .

But thanks to YouTube, iTunes and other music streaming services, I am listening to more Assyrian music than ever before.

So with all this listening, I have come to the following painful conclusion , one that I have seen others make in the last few years: the quality of the lyrics has gone downhill! There is simply no comparison between what we hear today and what we heard in the 80s and 90s. Like Gosh, how many songs have to have ‘Seya al meya , gu Barya’!!!

Seems like some singers don’t mind paying big money to secure the best studios and musicians to produce their songs, but not so much care is given to the lyrics.

So what do you think is the reason for the decline in lyrics quality? Here are some of the reasons I can think of:

-In a rush to just produce and release their latest album, they shortcut on the lyrics?

-the good poets are joy writing anymore or simply don’t have the creative juices they used to have before ?

-I knew lyrics and music are supposed to be close to infinite, but most of the good lyrics and words have been used?

-we no longer have the same experience and the lack of the national and patriotic factor of late?


-something else?


Would love to hear your opinion?
 
The lyrics, the melody and the overall tone of the music have dissipated nowadays. The lyrics are all about mathwatha, reqtha, peda, shushla, hola thela men turaneh (*insert nonstop screeching zurna on top of those lyrics*) and all those tribal themes.

Another thing, most melodies and lyrics have been used or implemented. So we're sort of "running out" of melodies and lyric ideas.
 
This is only a theory but I believe this has happened because there has been a major shift in population. The city folks has been surpassed by village folks, shifting our music from "classical' Assyrian to more folk & traditional music style. Even the classic Assyrian dialect used in the 80s songs has now been replaced with village dialects.
 
Moneer said:
This is only a theory but I believe this has happened because there has been a major shift in population. The city folks has been surpassed by village folks, shifting our music from "classical' Assyrian to more folk & traditional music style. Even the classic Assyrian dialect used in the 80s songs has now been replaced with village dialects.
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You nailed it on the head.

The classic Assyrian dialect was very Urmian in the 1970s music I noticed, until it got more Iraqi Koine by the 1990s and 2000s, and now it's very mixed with the village dialects.

That said, singers still use the standard Assyrian dialect in love songs.
 
Moneer said:
This is only a theory but I believe this has happened because there has been a major shift in population. The city folks has been surpassed by village folks, shifting our music from "classical' Assyrian to more folk & traditional music style. Even the classic Assyrian dialect used in the 80s songs has now been replaced with village dialects.
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That is a very interesting theory actually!
 
My beef is that it went from being real music into drum machines, electronic machines.. Everything else in society is mechanized, computerized.. This is the only human thing we have -- don't ruin it! (don't buy it).

I swear, I should call every record shop, and my first question is, "Yes, where's your REAL music section?" and ask questions about the engineering until they're so frustrated, they start importing something worthy.
 
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