People
partial
to
a
shindig
in
the
Russian
republic
of
Chechnya
are
about
to
find
their
music
options
will
be
rather
limited.
The
region
is
introducing
a
ban
on
tunes
that
don’t
conform
to
the
Chechen
“sense
of
rhythm.”
In
a
statement
translated
by
The
Guardian,
Chechnya’s
Culture
Ministry
announced
last
week,
“From
now
on
all
musical,
vocal
and
choreographic
works
should
correspond
to
a
tempo
of
80
to
116
beats
per
minute,”
effectively
criminalizing
anything
the
region
considers
to
be
too
fast
or
too
slow.
The
ban
requires
local
artists
to
rewrite
their
music
to
comply
with
the
restrictions
by
June
1st,
or
else
they
won’t
be
allowed
to
perform
publicly.
“Borrowing
musical
culture
from
other
peoples
is
inadmissible,”
said
Chechen
Culture
Minister
Musa
Dadayev.
“We
must
bring
to
the
people
and
to
the
future
of
our
children
the
cultural
heritage
of
the
Chechen
people.”
Russia’s
national
anthem
is
too
slow
for
the
80–116bpm
limit
The
new
tempo
limitations
are,
amusingly,
too
fast
for
Russia’s
own
national
anthem
(which
sits
at
76bpm),
while
still
being
fairly
slow
by
popular
music
standards.
The
high
bpm
rave
and
techno
bops
enjoyed
in
Western
countries
are
clearly
out,
but
this
ban
would
even
prevent
people
from
listening
to
fairly
somber
tracks
like
Nirvana’s
120bpm
hit
“Come
as
You
Are”
—
if
the
song
wasn’t
already
restricted
in
the
deeply
conservative
Russian
republic.
Chechnya
is
governed
by
Russian
laws,
which
already
heavily
restrict
media
that
contains
swearing
or
that
mentions
drugs
or
LGBTQIA
themes.
The
first
two
especially
impact
things
like
rap
—
which
can
easily
fall
between
the
80
to
116bpm
limit
—
with
Russian
President
Vladimir
Putin
having
previously
called
for
a
crackdown
on
the
genre
in
2018.
Chechnya
has
been
repeatedly
criticized
by
foreign
governments
and
human
rights
organizations,
with
the
republic’s
authoritarian
leader,
Ramzan
Kadyrov,
having
vocally
supported
“honor
killings”
against
women
and
sexual
minorities.
In
response
to
reports
in
2017
that
concentration
camps
had
been
set
up
by
Chechen
authorities
to
torture
gay
men,
Kadyrov
claimed
that
LGBTQ+
individuals
“simply
do
not
exist”
in
the
region.
Original author: Jess Weatherbed
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