Thou Shalt Not Lip Sync
I first heard this on NPR this morning. It’s worth a giggle. I mean, we complain about some of our laws being too controlling…
ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan - He has outlawed opera and ballet and railed against long hair and gold teeth, but now the authoritarian president of Turkmenistan is determined to wipe out another perceived scourge: lip synching.
President Saparmurat Niyazov has ordered a ban on lip synching performances across the tightly controlled Central Asian nation, citing “a negative effect on the development of singing and musical art,” the president’s office said Tuesday.
“Unfortunately, one can see on television old voiceless singers lip-synching their old songs,” Niyazov told a Cabinet meeting in comments broadcast on state TV on Tuesday. “Don’t kill talents by using lip synching… Create our new culture.”
Under Niyazov’s order, lip synching is now prohibited at all cultural events, concerts, on television — and at private celebrations such as weddings. [“Turkmen President Bans Lip Synching(Yahoo!News)”]
tags: strange laws, Saparmurat Niyazov
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on November 22, 2006 at 4:00 am
Oneworld Multimedia :: Notes from the Armenian Blogosphere :: November :: 2006 said:
[…] That comment was from Blogrel’s Harmick who writes on pop music in Armenia from time, but who also raises an interesting fact on Cilicia. In Turkmenistan, lip-syncing has been made illegal to prevent the erosion of the local indigenous culture. That said, I’d much rather Armenia not take any lead from Turkmenbashi and besides, as Zarchka from Life Around Me points out in the comments section, local audiences don’t complain so on their own head be it. […]