Googoosh: Man Amadan

Throughout Iran, the famous actor and singer Googoosh is very popular, and used to make pop music that was extremely well known in the 1960's and 1970's. In the song Man Ramadan, it is very obvious that the music is based in the Middle East, while still borrowing many more Western elements.

The first very noticeable thing about the piece that makes it so clearly Middle Eastern are the very quick melismas that appear frequently throughout the song. Both Googoosh's voice and the instruments do many of these at the very beginning of the song. Another big Middle Eastern element is the heterophonic melodies, played by many instruments at once with different embellishments. Usually the largest amount of embellishments come from Googoosh herself. Lastly, the instrumentation is very Middle Eastern, with stringed instruments rather than electric guitars accompanying the pop singer throughout the song.

As previously stated, the song has some Western elements too. The most noticeable is arrangement of the song itself, which seems to follow the standard verse refrain verse refrain pattern. Also, the refrain seems to have a more Western melody, without the complex and fast melismas occurring throughout the song. These multiple elements together mix to make a very interesting Iranian pop song.