There are standards around the world for regulating the frequency of sound, of decibels, but Armenian television is outside these standards. That is to say, the volume level among TV channels is not equal — when you change the channel, all of sudden you find the television is bellowing.

Even if what we’re watching is a commercial, there’s no need for it to be loud for everyone to hear it. My child (and I believe, everyone’s children) wakes up from that sound. It’s quite unpleasant. Usually, the softer a person speaks, the more attentively people listen to him. Everyone already loathes these commercials — not because they’re so bad but because they’re so loud. 

One shouldn’t shout so loud about something that, to put it mildly, is not always right. That is, advertising cannot be considered the truth. We’re not saying that the pipes or juices being advertised are the best, right? But it turns out that television shouts the loudest about that which is not the truth. 

You want to be able to want to raise the volume on the TV not lower it. For example, I constantly want to lower it, and finally I lower it so much that the TV shuts itself off. Armenian TV stations have to try to reach an agreement and adopt a single standard for volume that is accepted around the world.

I understand that Armenia is out of this world, not to mention that it spins the other way, but, all the same, no matter how it spins, we all appear and continue to live in the same place.

We have long banished Armenian culture from television. We have one good cultural channel, it was called Ararat, and no one ever knew what eventually happened to it. And why? Of course, Shoghakat TV is one of the best channels, but both could’ve remained on air, right? They weren’t interfering with each other. 

I get the impression that we’re so untalented that we get everything from somewhere (or someone) else. Don’t we have the ability to showcase our own culture? The whole day, around the world, we shout about our talents, our uniqueness… But where is it? Why doesn’t it appear on our screen? The Russians shoot a program (“Let’s Get Married”) and suddenly an Armenian version pops up. Stupid, incomprehensible… Supposedly the Russian show is good and so the Armenians imitate it. We shouldn’t imitate anyone. It’s our shame. Then the Russians see it and begin to laugh at us. How can the copy of anything be good?

Television isn’t good anywhere in the world, and television everywhere is for brainwashing viewers. And our brains are “washed” with the same programs, the same music and the same soap operas. You’ve probably noticed that constantly, 24 hours a day, are the same faces on the screen (perhaps they’re good faces, but let them change from time to time). 

No matter what time you turn on the television, you come across the same program. And that program (or soap opera) endlessly continues and continues…

What’s happening in Armenian soap operas now? The public is shown something that really doesn’t exist in our country. Do such horrible things happen in our families that they show on TV? And on the news you only hear bad things — who beat or killed whom, what he destroyed. I think they show these things for people to learn, to acclimatize, to become how television wants to see them.

They ruin viewers because television doesn’t need smart, thinking people, especially when it can “twiddle” with zombified people however it wants. I understand that there are ratings, but if a program has high ratings it doesn’t mean that it’s good. 

I’m generally wary of journalists. Journalists in Armenia are mainly semi-literate young men and women. They’re not educated. They become journalists because they want to get in on the action, appear on television, and not because they like their work. Uncivil journalists write an article and don’t even tell you when it will be published so you can read it. 

The worst is that what they want to say they say through someone else’s mouth. I’ve stopped giving interviews because I’ve become convinced, that which is published is not the interview I give but the journalist’s fantasy. And when you give an interview on television, you see that they’ve edited your remarks and cut parts of it out, and what you said has been given the completely opposite meaning. 

Of course, there are journalists who give their lives for their profession. But it’s the others who taint good journalists’ names. 

Vahagn Hayrapetyan
jazz musician

School: P. Tchaikovsky music school in Yerevan
University: Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory
Favorite book: Hermann Hesse’s work
Favorite film: Emir Kusturica’s “Black Cat, White Cat” (1998)
Favorite music: music that has melody, harmony and rhythm and that touches your heart
Favorite sport: swimming, skating, horse riding, football
Favorite expression: “If you’re famous, it doesn’t mean you’re creative”

The views expressed in the column are those of the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of Media.am.