Iran turns to rap, tailors its propaganda for next generation
TEHRAN: It’s a common theme in the state-controlled media in Iran — the armed forces are not to be trifled with; they’re tough men doing a tough job, defending a country under threat. Nevertheless, it was a shock to Iranians when a video featuring a wellknown rapper delivered the same message from the deck of a navy frigate.
Chanting “death to America”, burning effigies of Uncle Sam and painting murals of Lady Liberty with a skull as a face lost their impact long ago. Forced to adapt or fizzle out, Iran’s propaganda machine has sought to embrace the latest trends and technologies to try to tailor messages to the sensibilities of a new generation.
Iranian clerics have long insisted that rap music is the devil’s work, but they had no complaints when Amir Tataloo, a rapper with a hard-partying, gangster-style reputation, turned into a nationalistic admirer of Iran’s military effort in the Persian Gulf.
“What better way to attract the youth to our ideals than a rapper who subscribes to those?” said Mohammadreza Shafaf, the head of the Soureh Film Club, a state-backed group seeking to inject life into Iran’s propaganda. “If we hadn’t changed, we would’ve lost our audience,” he said.
While the video received wide attention, not everyone was taken by it. “These are state-of-the-art methods to feed nonsense into people’s minds,” said Arian Mozaffari, 27. But he acknowledged that people were increasingly influenced by the stream of patriotic songs and videos on the internet.