Smashed Hits 2.0

Press release – 2 September 2010

Daniel Barenboim, Radiohead’s Colin Greenwood, Femi Kuti, Will Self and Gilad Atzmon discuss music and censorship in the new issue of Index on Censorship ‘Smashed Hits 2.0’ – publication date 8 September. In association with Freemuse.

Launch: 21 September 630pm at the Free Word Centre 60 Farringdon Road London EC1R 3GA (gmap).
RSVP [email protected] Tel: 020 7324 2522

For musicians, broadcasters, singers and their fans around the world, censorship is a fact of life – from legal threats against filesharers to restrictions on performing live. But some musicians and music lovers face more extreme conditions than others. In Iran, the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei recently declared that music was incompatible with the values of the Islamic Republic; in Tibet, musicians are imprisoned for singing resistance songs and in Turkey, Kurdish singers can face prosecution for making political statements. In its latest issue, Index publishes interviews and articles by leading music writers and musicians on the challenges to free expression – whether digital, legal or commercial.

***Daniel Barenboim on his stand against censorship

***Radiohead’s Colin Greenwood on how the net sets musicians free

***Will Self on banning the Sex Pistols

***Femi Kuti on confronting censors in Nigeria

***Gilad Atzmon on how jazz gave him a political education

PLUS Negar Shaghaghi (star of ‘No one knows about Persian Cats’) on defying convention in Iran; Cameroonian singer Lapiro de Mbanga gives exclusive interview from prison; Louise Gray on hate music; Kaya Genç on Kurdish blues; Peter Jenner, manager of The Clash and Pink Floyd, on censorship in the music business; Gilad Atzmon on an education in jazz; Khyam Allami, Malu Halasa, Simon Broughton and many more

Listen to Index contributors’ playlists on iTunes and Spotify www.indexoncensorship.org/music

‘Smashed Hits 2.0’ available from selected bookshops and on Amazon
or subscribe on www.indexoncensorship.org/subscribe

Launched in 1972, Index on Censorship is the only magazine devoted to protecting and promoting free expression, and is published by SAGE – a leading international publisher of journals, books, and electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets. www.sagepublications.com

For further information contact enquiries[at]indexoncensorship[.]org
Tel: 020 7324 2522

PAST EVENT: Smashed Hits 2.0 Live

Smaseh Hits 2.0 coverIndex on Censorship celebrates the launch of its new magazine on music and free expression with performances by the Iranian singer Mahsa Vahdat and oud player Khyam Allam at the Free Word Centre.

Mahsa Vahdat is winner of the Freemuse Award 2010.

Khyam Allami is the first recipient of BBC Radio 3’s World Routes Academy scholarship and made his debut at Womad and the Proms this summer.

Index on Censorship invites you to join the festivities and tune into Smashed Hits 2.0 Live.

To reserve a place, call 020 7324 2570 or click here

6:30pm. 21 September 2010. Free Word Centre, London

Khamenei not the Ayatollah of Rock and Rolla

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said that music is incompatible with the Iranian revolution, and hence he is not available to dj at weddings, baptisms or bar mitzvahs. Shame.

In response to a question from a student, the “supreme leader” commented: “Although music is halal, promoting and teaching it is not compatible with the highest values of the sacred regime of the Islamic Republic.”

Which makes now probably as good a time as any to tell you that the next issue of Index on Censorship magazine will focus on censorship of music and musicians.

From Iran, we’ve got an article on the Tehran indie scene by Negar Shaghaghi of Take It Easy, Hospital (stars of No One Knows About Persian Cats), and an interview with electro-rock singer Maral Afsharian.

In the meantime, if the Ayatollah doesn’t like music, I’d imagine he hates this:

Different Ayatollah, but still…

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