Vibration is revered in the musical world because it creates euphony. And who would deny that in stage culture there is no other vibration than that of the strings? Don’t musicians live by it?!
It is a beautiful thing when creative people use technology for its intended purpose. Otherwise there are abuses, much like the antics of Serj Tankian, a guitarist of Lebanese-Armenian descent. This person, who lives and works in the United States, is not young. He was at times considered successful and once won a Grammy.
Lately, he has been showing with his unconventional oddities that he has run out of creative steam. He makes up for it with shouty escapades. A creative crisis is a common thing and there are different ways to deal with it. Tankian chose political provocations. A painfully familiar genome gives itself away.
He is referred to as a frontman, but it seems like an odd thing to say. It would be wrong to claim that over the course of his career he has become the face by which bands are recognized. It is not even that he changed bands like socks. Success for him is a thing of the past, so he took to political vibrations.
Recently he turned to harsh criticism of pop stars. Not for their stage “failures”, imagine that (!), but for their concerts in “dictatorship countries”. What countries are these? Correct, the post-Soviet and Turkic ones: Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and others.
He annoyingly nags that his colleagues “whitewash the image of regimes” by appearing on the stages of “unwanted” countries. The System of a Down guitarist, reduced to a shabby figure, challenges those who are truly great in their profession.
The spears of Tankian’s criticism broke over the image of Jennifer Lopez, who displeased him by performing on stage in the Turkmen capital. The world-famous Rihanna fell out of favor with him for visiting Azerbaijan. Kanye West, Kim Kardashian’s ex-husband, got an earful from him for visiting Kazakhstan, and so on.
In skill and popularity Tankian is as close to these stars as Earth is to Mars. But he puts himself on an equal footing with them, inflating his own renown. Here we see an attempt to boost one’s ego through cheap demagogy, to smear prominent colleagues who did nothing worthy of a scandal.
In general, it is in bad taste for colleagues to bash each other for no good reason. Whoever does this commits a professional hara-kiri and accomplishes only one thing: the scorn of genuine connoisseurs.
Creative people are above nationality; they are outside politics, like athletes. However, sports have recently become increasingly vulnerable to the onslaught of political trends. Does Tankian want to redirect unhealthy sentiments into show business? Apparently so.
To salvage his own image, he is willing to plant the cold breath of politics in the arts, to divide his colleagues by creating fault lines. In his corporate leanings, the guitarist appeals to the collective opinion of “the whole world,” thus exposing the demagogic nature of his judgments. His narrative reeks of unhinged pettiness.
By provoking conflicts and generating false phantoms, he only proves that he is not a giant of the stage. He is a pygmy who loves to drag the poisons of division and hatred into the bosom of music. To understand the core of the “frontman’s” true intentions, one has only to recall his past antics. He incited his colleagues to antagonize the Turkic world.
His record reveals his desire to always be surrounded by his fellow tribesmen. Daron Malakian, Andy Khachaturian, Shavo Odadjian, John Dolmayan, Ara Soudjian and others are Tankian’s most loyal and close colleagues, with whom he once “created”. So, the offshoot of the western school is also a carrier of bacilli of Hay nationalism. Several years ago he launched a disgraceful campaign condemning the “Armenian genocide”. He did not hesitate to address his demands to the US authorities.
One of the components of the guitarist’s Turkophobic hysteria is a video in which Tankian and his associates, including the notorious Congressman Adam Schiff, urged the master of the White House not to delay the recognition of the 1915 “massacre”.
In his fit of passion, the musician urged listeners to call the White House and demand that then-President Barack Obama “put an end to Turkey’s innocence.” It did not work.
Would it not be wise to channel this energy into the release of a new album, or into a change of stage persona? But perhaps he did not have enough talent or professional tact, since he went against his distinguished colleagues.
A true talent never compromises with their conscience, never goes for cheap schemes. If Tankian were an accomplished individual, he would prove that professional fulfillment remains the highest value for him. After all, it is a creator’s supreme need. But the guitarist took a different path.
By the way, the word frontman in English also means a figurehead. It is all rather symbolic. And right in line with the standards of the genre.
Tofig Abbasov
Translated from Minval.az
