The Many Faces of God in New Iranian Music

My paper examines the ways in which musicians in the rock, pop and hip-hop genres contest rigid notions of an all-powerful, authoritative God propagated by the state’s institutionalized Islam through their varied, personalized renditions of a complex God. I argue that these young musicians’ projections of their nearly ‘human’ relationships with an imperfect God in many ways reflects the dissolution of notions of the absolute authority figure especially among the younger generation today. On a different plane, presentations of a God who may be susceptible to bribes or a God who is simply a ‘great nothing’ are parallel criticisms of an Islamic Republic that is sustained by its equally corrupt or empty God. Hence, this poetic tactic is employed for various purposes. I briefly discuss changing notions of authority within Iran’s modern period before delving into a textual analysis of chosen song lyrics in order to demonstrate my points above. I draw on years of ethnographic research in Iran in order to situate my interpretations within Iranian society itself.