ABSTRACT
The existence and expansion of popular music is intrinsically linked to the development of the middle classes and particularly to the market economy, mass production and mass media. This chapter begins with a definitive formation of popular music in Iran. This Iranian popular music was divided into three distinct branches, which interpenetrated over time. The first was born of Iranian classical music, the second from motrebi music and the third from western popular music. This chapter provides precise knowledge of a light genre of traditional music, namely the tasnif, which is the mesomusic par excellence of Iranian musical culture. In 1960, according to the interpretations of a very renowned singer, Abollah Davami, considered the best exponent of the vocal radif of Iranian music, as well as old tasnif. Although most of the known old tasnif belong to the Naseri era. Almost four decades earlier, the constitutional revolution of 1906 had put an end to royal patronage of music.
