I have never been able to get accustomed to online media, and I don’t use computers a lot. I was and continue to remain a TV person. In this sense, I’m very “old”.

I watch everything on television. I’m interested in how reality and the TV screen interact with each other.

First, our television regrettably and in some cases, shamefully is provincial. From the moment when the stupid word “rating” entered into use, a lot was lost. Generally I don’t understand why TV channels compete with one another for ratings. If every channel has its own signature, viewers themselves will decide which channel’s signature they prefer. Otherwise it turns out that all the channels want to resemble each other. And because of the race for ratings, provincialism blooms more.

Much in television is done with a left hand, casually. In the 90s, TV didn’t have money, but instead it had great enthusiasm and, if it can be said, spirit. You entered the building and felt that you had entered television. But now in the building you’ll see people that have nothing to do with television but work there.

To tell the truth, this kills me. In the past, I’d go to the television station often. I was a member of the Public TV’s board for 12 years.

They used to say that I have musical “black lists” and decide who can be shown on television and who not. Actually, there was no such list; it was just a choice based on taste. And now too I think that at least in the matter of taste, we have to be a tyrant because art and particularly music are in such a neglected state that it’s already terrible. Only money talks. The singer with money pays for their songs to circulate on air. And he who doesn’t have money doesn’t find room on television networks. 

The sort of music that’s on air now is not even rabiz (rabiz, in any case, is specific), it’s more so a series of the inexplicable songs of inexplicable performers (long-legged girls and long-haired boys), which is written exclusively with computers. And these songs and videos crash on television’s head like a catastrophe. I want to ask the channels’ managers, what are you going to do after, when you succeed in convincing the next generation that this is right? 

I did an approximate calculation: 80% of the music aired on television is trash. 

Of course, the problem are not only the singers. There are many insanitary faces on television. This is how I call TV hosts and reporters who don’t clearly understand why they’re in the frame. 

Having news broadcasts is considered mandatory for all TV channels. And no one asks, why? It’s not important for me with which channel I listen to some news story; they’re mostly the same.

I particularly closely follow the news from Karabakh, trying to compare it with the information I have. As a rule, they’re not the same. That is to say, what I see on the frontline or what my friends and acquaintances tell me, I don’t see on television. 

Of course, we should watch the news but not so much to be informed as to compare. In any case, this is definitely the case for news coming from Karabakh. We have to go, see with our own eyes, then listen to how the situation is being presented on television. That’s the right thing. And there’s nothing odd in my remarks. That’s how it is…

I watch everything, even soap operas. It’s interesting what sort of characters appear on soap operas and want they want to tell TV viewers. And I come to a very sad conclusion: we endeavor to depict ourselves as worse than we are.

If we accept that television is a force, then it assures us with force that a boy is not a boy, a girl is not a girl, family is not family, law is not law, life is not life. We show unsightly families who enter our homes and convince us that the right thing are those families.

There is a type of poor quality and repulsive person that soap opera scriptwriters shove in the plot, assuring us that television and the nation are the same. 

Sometimes you watch the protagonists and become ill. Really, you either have to become ill or laugh. I want to cite very primitive, but apt examples. The main concern of female protagonists of soap operas is this: from where to buy an outfit to go to a wedding?

And the protagonists are constantly busy arguing who is a real man? In their view, for that you have to have big cars, talk roughly and loudly, and “manly,” that is, with jargon.

That is to say, the characters you might see on the street, without any change appear on the screen (only make-up is added). And if some time ago they were a minority, well now, thanks to television, they’ve become prevalent. Television takes certain scenes and characters from life and dictates them to us.

And the issue is what it takes. It mostly takes the lowest. There’s a soap opera called Arachnordner [“leaders”] with great actors but the material is a complete shame. Say, family members hit each other, murder happens, but no one gets punished. They show us that life is based on fraud, deceiving each other, and on “spoiling” it. And the viewer gets accustomed that things can be like this. 

Moreover, this is indeed so.

The idea of impunity has entered television.

It’s understandable that many actors are solving the problem of their daily bread, but this way, not only are their previous earnings erased, but also reinforced are unsightly protagonists who every day have fun in saunas, are busy eating and drinking, and deceiving each other. What does this teach?

I’m sure that if the TV channels wanted to, they could produce good soap operas. The Public TV of Armenia, for example, filmed a soap opera about the police and doctors (that is, working professionals and with positive protagonists), but I think they didn’t succeed. 

Now sitcoms have appeared that are based on American humor (quite banal, let me tell you). But this is the signature that, in any case, is tidy and beautiful. Yes, it’s not Armenian humor, but it doesn’t evoke displeasure. 

The choice of guests on different programs likewise testifies to the channels’ signature. There’s a program that I like: different people talk about their professions, while the young audience asks questions. It’s a smart, good program. 

If you know whom you’re inviting to your show, then you have to be able to present them correctly, and not, for instance, praise their new video for half an hour and conduct a narrow personal conversation or one that recalls a provincial club. Sometimes a guest is presented such that it seems as though it’s a burial, while the guest, a funeral wreath.

I’m a voice person, and if the journalist and host on the screen don’t speak in a normal voice, I can no longer understand what they’re saying. Many aren’t taught to listen on air, to hold pauses.

We understood that the 21st century is a century of speed, but ideas are driven home when speech is slow. That’s how information becomes credible, and the speaker, dignified. When the news is read quickly, even the most important information becomes blurred and masticated. Maybe that’s done on purpose, but more likely, the in vogue format of the music video is in effect.

I don’t see any thinking people in television. That is to say, analyzing, not assimilating, free of pretensions, smart. It seems that now they think more about making pretty decorations, and not about having something to say. The priority is the furniture — in all its manifestations.

The emptiness can be filled with neither tall buildings nor luxurious furniture nor verbosity.

I want to remind all TV hosts that restrained, even “stingy” speech gets delivered. Speech that doesn’t get ahead of itself and is free of superfluities. In this case, the listener thinks that they even “see” the speech. But this is the result of upbringing. Ultimately, much depends on format: clothing, manner of speech, even hairstyle and way of sitting. A person on the screen has to be dignified and not, say, be unable to read the news with a teleprompter, since their stylish hairdo blocks their view.

I don’t walk a lot in the city, but when I go for a stroll, I become convinced that people aren’t used to respecting each other, to keeping a distance. They can come, enter your personal space, saying, dear brother, how are you? It seems as though sticking your nose in someone else’s business is normal. I’m sure that this is also the result of soap operas. The city has stopped being comfortable, since the boundary between the public and the private has been breached. 

Now working with the State Song Theatre students, I think that out of 200 kids, maybe 6 will become singers, but at least the rest will learn to conduct themselves correctly and clean their teeth at night [like good law-abiding citizens]. And in general take those simple but essential steps that form the educated person. Let me repeat that word again: dignified person. 

Artur Grigoryan
Composer
Artistic Director, State Song Theatre of Armenia

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