8 ms·

Chechnya bans music outside the range of 80-116 beats per minute

125 points by anigbrowl 3y ago

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
AlbertCory 3y ago
Back to Bach, I say. Outlaw the flat 5th and flat 7th, too /s None of that American "Jazz Music" allowed here.
- xanderlewis 3y ago
  Tritones and ii-V-Is are even worse in their capitalist imperialistic decadence.
- dbcurtis 3y ago
  But.... outlawing flatted 7th means no more mixolydian mode, so Appalachian and Cajun fiddlers will want to have words with you...
- MusicGuy132 3y ago
  Intervals are not flat or sharp. They are minor, major, perfect, etc. A 5th is a perfect interval. An inverted minor interval is a major interval. An inverted perfect interval is another perfect interval.
ZhadruOmjar 3y ago
Whatever new genre of music comes out of this will be lit. Can't wait to be dancing to "Chechen Low BPM DnB" in 20 years.
- xanderlewis 3y ago
  Maybe they’ll all be listening to the ‘… slowed+reverb’ stuff that seems to be popular now.
kelnos 3y ago
I sometimes think about the idea that different countries/cultures have different levels of what I might call "social development" (as opposed to industrial or technological development). A country or culture that is tolerant (or just actively does not care about) most aspects of social interaction would rate higher on the scale. If I look back into the history of my own country, I can identify areas where the US has made improvements in social development. Parts of the US attempted to ban jazz around 100 years ago. Later in the 1900s there was pearl-clutching around rock'n'roll as being somehow evil. Changing attitudes toward sex (especially around pre-marital sex, and around how sexual promiscuity is judged differently between men and women) are another measure. Then there are the things with a strong legal component: the past legality of slavery (and the explicit belief that certain races of people were less "people" than others), denying certain groups at various times access to the ballot box (non-landowners, women, many non-white races). Ballot access is still an issue, even if everyone is theoretically allowed to vote (well, aside from some types of convicted felons, depending on jurisdiction, which is yet another injustice). Then we have discrimination against LGBT folks, including the fact that legal marriage for gay and lesbian couples wasn't universally recognized here until fairly recently. Some of it is legal, some of it is social/cultural, though of course people's social and cultural attitudes tend to shape law. So, to me, this ban from Chechnya is just an example of their country/culture being not as far along on the social development scale.
ginkgotree 3y ago
Well, defense lawyers will love this one
dbcurtis 3y ago
No more adagios!! My kid would have loved that during violin lesson days. Kid, talking about a Handel sonata: "This is my favorite adagio movement." Teacher: "Why?" Kid: "It's only 5 measures long."
Kye 3y ago
I guess that rules out DnB and happy hardcore.
userbinator 3y ago
I am doubtful such bans will have much of an effect on the population, given that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samizdat#Contraband_audio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samizdat#Contraband_audio was common in the area.
NotYourLawyer 3y ago
Sounds like something out of North Korea. Wild.
- foverzar 3y ago
  These kind of news are typically fake twisted misrepresentations living off obscurity of the subject.
mistyvales 3y ago
Sounds like Autechre Anti EP is back, baby!
throwaway290232 3y ago
[dead]
RajT88 3y ago
This would make an amazing episode of Metalocalypse. Where they show up to put on a show, and blast the audience with 200bpm death metal. The front row catches fire. All clergy and politicians in a 30 mile radius have their heads explode.
Arteiii 3y ago
Not the first time... https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46584554 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46584554 I think Fantano has a pretty good vid that pretty much covers everything related to this. https://youtu.be/RvjDlaHLDWo?si=S4ux5J1ifPtMCVJ- https://youtu.be/RvjDlaHLDWo?si=S4ux5J1ifPtMCVJ-
ChrisMarshallNY 3y ago
I guess it could be worse. I'm pretty sure that the Taliban ban all music; regardless of the tempo. They tend to be rather ... strident ... in enforcing their rules.
- SuperNinKenDo 3y ago
  Not exactly true, but yes, their ideas around permissible forms of music are incredibly restrictive.
- 082349872349872 3y ago
  Taliban and Kadyrov are both Sunni, for what it's worth. I believe even under the Taliban it's permissible to sing about shtupping girls, as long as you're poetic enough that it can superficially be understood as longing for oneness with god. (or was that the other way around?) Tajikistan gets portrayed as very islamist in the US press, but when I look at vids like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs_Blkn_zfs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs_Blkn_zfs I have to say that the female singer (a) has uncovered hair, and (b) is singing outside ... in contrast to farsi singers covering the same tune.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
ChrisArchitect 3y ago
[dupe] Some more discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39992652 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39992652
RickJWagner 3y ago
According to the internet, Jozin z Bazin is usually done at 112 bpm. It fits the range, that's the important part.
kzrdude 3y ago
Adam Neely's commentary video on this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q811R6YsM0s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q811R6YsM0s also gives some context and funny explanations of why the ban doesn't make sense.
andoando 3y ago
That's a lot of classical music lol
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
persedes 3y ago
Anti ep 2?
bee_rider 3y ago
> As the independent Russian news website Meduza notes, Russia’s national anthem—which is 76 beats per minute—falls outside the culture ministry’s range That seems like a bizarre oversight, I wonder how they’ll deal with it. I guess there will have to be some exception process.
- Intralexical 3y ago
  If the ban were serious, I imagine that would be a problem if they had any intention of enforcing it consistently. (As it is, the ban may be misrepresented. See the link posted by "ein0p".)
- sneak 3y ago
  Laws are never enforced universally or consistently and without bias even in so-called “free” and “liberal” and “secular” countries. Prosecutorial discretion is one of the most critical and important ways that the oligarchy punishes those who would oppose them, in any country. “For my friends, anything. For my enemies, the law.”
- jagged-chisel 3y ago
  You double the BPM, and double the length of each note. Done.
- foverzar 3y ago
  It's bizarre because it's not a real thing. Meduza has extremely low factuality and often posts insane and literally impossible stories.
- kelnos 3y ago
  Apparently Chechnya's own anthem is also slower. As was the music backing the video of the announcement of this new policy that was posted to Telegram. If this wasn't so mind-bogglingly stupid, it would be funny.
- cjbgkagh 3y ago
  Maybe speed it up slightly
ARandomerDude 3y ago
This seems trivially easy to circumvent. For example, take your 3/4 song that's 160 bpm and call it a 6/8 song that's 80 bpm. Done.
- ceejayoz 3y ago
  Playing “rules lawyer” with people who routinely respond to challenges with “summary execution” tends to end badly.
  - drowsspa 3y ago
    "Law is code" strikes again! It's not even playing "rules lawyer"; it's pretending that computers, not humans, interpret the law.
    - kayodelycaon 3y ago
      A good lawyer knows the law. A great lawyer knows the judge. For those that aren’t familiar with courts, people who make an effort to piss off the judge are setting themselves up for a bad time.
    - ofslidingfeet 3y ago
      If a formal system isn't consistent, then it shouldn't work.
      - ceejayoz 3y ago
        If a legal system doesn’t have some flex, it doesn’t work.
        ofslidingfeet 3y ago
        I have to say, I'm just struck with astonishment to encounter a truism about "flexible government" as a defense of autocratic despotism.
genman 3y ago
To be precise - not Chechnya but Russian Republic of Chechnya under Russian puppet control. There was a moment after collapse of USSR when Chechnya was de facto independent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chechnya#Chechen_Wars_and_brief_independence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chechnya#Chechen_Wars_and_brie...
- foverzar 3y ago
  ...until hastily degenerated into an ISIS-like stare and invaded Dagestan, lol.
  - genman 3y ago
    They were not blessed with great leaders after their president Dudayev was killed and didn't have full control over previously supporting commanders who got their own ideas and if we are to believe the murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya then it was a Russian conspiracy to start the Second Chechen War. This didn't play out any good for anybody but the main conspirator.
rand846633 3y ago
Sounds so outlandish, but then this comes to mind how the UK tried to ban raves: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_Justice_and_Public_Order_Act_1994 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_Justice_and_Public_... > Sections 63, 64 & 65 of the Act targeted electronic dance music played at raves. The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act empowered police to stop a rave in the open air when "ten or more people are attending, or where two or more are making preparations for a rave". Section 65 allowed any uniformed constable who believes a person is on their way to a rave within a 5-mile (8.0 km) radius to stop them and direct them away from the area; "non-compliant citizens may be subject to a maximum fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale (£1000)"
- alisonatwork 3y ago
  There was an excellent article about this over the weekend: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2024/apr/20/we-went-from-naive-hippyish-protesters-to-hardcore-anarchists-the-criminal-justice-bill-protests-30-years-on https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2024/apr/20/we-went-from...
- hindsightbias 3y ago
  Amateurs, ‘Merica fixed this problem two decades back: https://www.congress.gov/bill/107th-congress/senate-bill/2633 https://www.congress.gov/bill/107th-congress/senate-bill/263...
  - Tostino 3y ago
    They just can't help them selves with the backronyms can they?! Politicians and the US military must spend a significant proportion of their time coming up with clever names.
    - FredPret 3y ago
      Clever names seem like a waste of time but it’s one of the best things you can do if you want an idea to spread
  - thiago_fm 3y ago
aaron695 3y ago
[dead]
v01dv01d 3y ago
[flagged]
tech_ken 3y ago
"What officer?? No way, this isn't gabber! It's simply an electronic composition at a nice, legal, 80 BPM where the bass and rhythm sections are in 4/8 to achieve a thrilling allegro feel."

125 points by anigbrowl 3y ago

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

AlbertCory 3y ago

Back to Bach, I say. Outlaw the flat 5th and flat 7th, too /s None of that American "Jazz Music" allowed here.

xanderlewis 3y ago
Tritones and ii-V-Is are even worse in their capitalist imperialistic decadence.
dbcurtis 3y ago
But.... outlawing flatted 7th means no more mixolydian mode, so Appalachian and Cajun fiddlers will want to have words with you...
MusicGuy132 3y ago
Intervals are not flat or sharp. They are minor, major, perfect, etc. A 5th is a perfect interval. An inverted minor interval is a major interval. An inverted perfect interval is another perfect interval.

ZhadruOmjar 3y ago

Whatever new genre of music comes out of this will be lit. Can't wait to be dancing to "Chechen Low BPM DnB" in 20 years.

xanderlewis 3y ago
Maybe they’ll all be listening to the ‘… slowed+reverb’ stuff that seems to be popular now.

kelnos 3y ago

I sometimes think about the idea that different countries/cultures have different levels of what I might call "social development" (as opposed to industrial or technological development). A country or culture that is tolerant (or just actively does not care about) most aspects of social interaction would rate higher on the scale. If I look back into the history of my own country, I can identify areas where the US has made improvements in social development. Parts of the US attempted to ban jazz around 100 years ago. Later in the 1900s there was pearl-clutching around rock'n'roll as being somehow evil. Changing attitudes toward sex (especially around pre-marital sex, and around how sexual promiscuity is judged differently between men and women) are another measure. Then there are the things with a strong legal component: the past legality of slavery (and the explicit belief that certain races of people were less "people" than others), denying certain groups at various times access to the ballot box (non-landowners, women, many non-white races). Ballot access is still an issue, even if everyone is theoretically allowed to vote (well, aside from some types of convicted felons, depending on jurisdiction, which is yet another injustice). Then we have discrimination against LGBT folks, including the fact that legal marriage for gay and lesbian couples wasn't universally recognized here until fairly recently. Some of it is legal, some of it is social/cultural, though of course people's social and cultural attitudes tend to shape law. So, to me, this ban from Chechnya is just an example of their country/culture being not as far along on the social development scale.

ginkgotree 3y ago

Well, defense lawyers will love this one

dbcurtis 3y ago

No more adagios!! My kid would have loved that during violin lesson days. Kid, talking about a Handel sonata: "This is my favorite adagio movement." Teacher: "Why?" Kid: "It's only 5 measures long."

Kye 3y ago

I guess that rules out DnB and happy hardcore.

userbinator 3y ago

I am doubtful such bans will have much of an effect on the population, given that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samizdat#Contraband_audio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samizdat#Contraband_audio was common in the area.

NotYourLawyer 3y ago

Sounds like something out of North Korea. Wild.

foverzar 3y ago
These kind of news are typically fake twisted misrepresentations living off obscurity of the subject.

mistyvales 3y ago

Sounds like Autechre Anti EP is back, baby!

throwaway290232 3y ago

[dead]

RajT88 3y ago

This would make an amazing episode of Metalocalypse. Where they show up to put on a show, and blast the audience with 200bpm death metal. The front row catches fire. All clergy and politicians in a 30 mile radius have their heads explode.

Arteiii 3y ago

Not the first time... https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46584554 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46584554 I think Fantano has a pretty good vid that pretty much covers everything related to this. https://youtu.be/RvjDlaHLDWo?si=S4ux5J1ifPtMCVJ- https://youtu.be/RvjDlaHLDWo?si=S4ux5J1ifPtMCVJ-

ChrisMarshallNY 3y ago

I guess it could be worse. I'm pretty sure that the Taliban ban all music; regardless of the tempo. They tend to be rather ... strident ... in enforcing their rules.

SuperNinKenDo 3y ago
Not exactly true, but yes, their ideas around permissible forms of music are incredibly restrictive.
082349872349872 3y ago
Taliban and Kadyrov are both Sunni, for what it's worth. I believe even under the Taliban it's permissible to sing about shtupping girls, as long as you're poetic enough that it can superficially be understood as longing for oneness with god. (or was that the other way around?) Tajikistan gets portrayed as very islamist in the US press, but when I look at vids like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs_Blkn_zfs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs_Blkn_zfs I have to say that the female singer (a) has uncovered hair, and (b) is singing outside ... in contrast to farsi singers covering the same tune.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

ChrisArchitect 3y ago

[dupe] Some more discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39992652 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39992652

RickJWagner 3y ago

According to the internet, Jozin z Bazin is usually done at 112 bpm. It fits the range, that's the important part.

kzrdude 3y ago

Adam Neely's commentary video on this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q811R6YsM0s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q811R6YsM0s also gives some context and funny explanations of why the ban doesn't make sense.

andoando 3y ago

That's a lot of classical music lol

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

persedes 3y ago

Anti ep 2?

bee_rider 3y ago

> As the independent Russian news website Meduza notes, Russia’s national anthem—which is 76 beats per minute—falls outside the culture ministry’s range That seems like a bizarre oversight, I wonder how they’ll deal with it. I guess there will have to be some exception process.

Intralexical 3y ago
If the ban were serious, I imagine that would be a problem if they had any intention of enforcing it consistently. (As it is, the ban may be misrepresented. See the link posted by "ein0p".)
sneak 3y ago
Laws are never enforced universally or consistently and without bias even in so-called “free” and “liberal” and “secular” countries. Prosecutorial discretion is one of the most critical and important ways that the oligarchy punishes those who would oppose them, in any country. “For my friends, anything. For my enemies, the law.”
jagged-chisel 3y ago
You double the BPM, and double the length of each note. Done.
foverzar 3y ago
It's bizarre because it's not a real thing. Meduza has extremely low factuality and often posts insane and literally impossible stories.
kelnos 3y ago
Apparently Chechnya's own anthem is also slower. As was the music backing the video of the announcement of this new policy that was posted to Telegram. If this wasn't so mind-bogglingly stupid, it would be funny.
cjbgkagh 3y ago
Maybe speed it up slightly

ARandomerDude 3y ago

This seems trivially easy to circumvent. For example, take your 3/4 song that's 160 bpm and call it a 6/8 song that's 80 bpm. Done.

ceejayoz 3y ago
Playing “rules lawyer” with people who routinely respond to challenges with “summary execution” tends to end badly.
- drowsspa 3y ago
  "Law is code" strikes again! It's not even playing "rules lawyer"; it's pretending that computers, not humans, interpret the law.
  - kayodelycaon 3y ago
    A good lawyer knows the law. A great lawyer knows the judge. For those that aren’t familiar with courts, people who make an effort to piss off the judge are setting themselves up for a bad time.
  - ofslidingfeet 3y ago
    If a formal system isn't consistent, then it shouldn't work.
    - ceejayoz 3y ago
      If a legal system doesn’t have some flex, it doesn’t work.
      - ofslidingfeet 3y ago
        I have to say, I'm just struck with astonishment to encounter a truism about "flexible government" as a defense of autocratic despotism.

genman 3y ago

To be precise - not Chechnya but Russian Republic of Chechnya under Russian puppet control. There was a moment after collapse of USSR when Chechnya was de facto independent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chechnya#Chechen_Wars_and_brief_independence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chechnya#Chechen_Wars_and_brie...

foverzar 3y ago
...until hastily degenerated into an ISIS-like stare and invaded Dagestan, lol.
- genman 3y ago
  They were not blessed with great leaders after their president Dudayev was killed and didn't have full control over previously supporting commanders who got their own ideas and if we are to believe the murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya then it was a Russian conspiracy to start the Second Chechen War. This didn't play out any good for anybody but the main conspirator.

rand846633 3y ago

Sounds so outlandish, but then this comes to mind how the UK tried to ban raves: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_Justice_and_Public_Order_Act_1994 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_Justice_and_Public_... > Sections 63, 64 & 65 of the Act targeted electronic dance music played at raves. The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act empowered police to stop a rave in the open air when "ten or more people are attending, or where two or more are making preparations for a rave". Section 65 allowed any uniformed constable who believes a person is on their way to a rave within a 5-mile (8.0 km) radius to stop them and direct them away from the area; "non-compliant citizens may be subject to a maximum fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale (£1000)"

alisonatwork 3y ago
There was an excellent article about this over the weekend: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2024/apr/20/we-went-from-naive-hippyish-protesters-to-hardcore-anarchists-the-criminal-justice-bill-protests-30-years-on https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2024/apr/20/we-went-from...
hindsightbias 3y ago
Amateurs, ‘Merica fixed this problem two decades back: https://www.congress.gov/bill/107th-congress/senate-bill/2633 https://www.congress.gov/bill/107th-congress/senate-bill/263...
- Tostino 3y ago
  They just can't help them selves with the backronyms can they?! Politicians and the US military must spend a significant proportion of their time coming up with clever names.
  - FredPret 3y ago
    Clever names seem like a waste of time but it’s one of the best things you can do if you want an idea to spread
- thiago_fm 3y ago

aaron695 3y ago

[dead]

v01dv01d 3y ago

[flagged]

tech_ken 3y ago

"What officer?? No way, this isn't gabber! It's simply an electronic composition at a nice, legal, 80 BPM where the bass and rhythm sections are in 4/8 to achieve a thrilling allegro feel."