Disc Jockey Dariush

 

Oksana Dragan

A music disc jockey who honed his skills in fundamentalist Iran is now a fixture¹ of the Washington D.C. music scene, particularly among the 28 thousand or so Iranians living in the United States capital.

He calls himself simply DJ Dariush. His style is low-key. His music, whether for American or Iranian audiences, is Persian-inflected and intended for non-stop dancing.

Sound of Iranian contemporary disco music
"Mostly I try to pick good music and mix it. Because, you know, you can dance differently to each individual piece of music. But you have to know which song should be played now so that people will continue dancing. Every time is different. I look at the crowd, and you just should know - okay, now is the time for this song. If you play a wrong song, even if it's a dance song, if it's the wrong song for that time, some people will go and will sit."

Dariush Rateshtari, who is 32 years old now, started his DJ career more than fifteen years ago in Teheran.

"When I was a teenager I was so into music, so I started to archive the music, the cassettes. At that time I think music CDs didn't exist. So I just started collecting music, and my friends, because I had a good archive and I also had good equipment, my friends asked me to play music at their events or house parties. So that was the beginning. At that time I didn't know that the job I was doing was a DJ, but that was the beginning."

As Dariush Rateshtari's musical archive grew, so did the demand for his services at family-oriented events that required musical entertainment. In the Ayatollahs' Iran of the 1980s music was not easy to come by. Popular music was banned, there were no radio stations playing music, no music stores, and most of the country's singers had fled to Europe or America. But for the ingenious and the determined² -- people like DJ Dariush -- there were ways of keeping up with what was happening on the music scene.

"There were some ways, like buying tapes on the black market, and that was illegal. But from networking. Like some people were coming out of the country, they just bought the music cassette and they brought it inside the country, and they just, you know, made a copy. And from the networking we could get the music."

Music was Dariush Rateshtari's hobby. At Teheran University he studied geology, but an interest in art and drawing led him to take courses at a technical school in design and computer graphics⁴. Dissatisfied with the limitations of life in Teheran, he longed to emigrate to America, which he believed would be more compatible with his way of thinking.

"Actually, the reason was just freedom, being free. Because I believe everybody was just born one time, and we live on this planet only one time, so I want to live the way I want, not the way other people or somebody forces you, you have to live this way."

Finally, in 1999, an opportunity to leave Iran opened up, and he took it, going first to Austria and then to the United States. He says his transition to life in America was quick and smooth. Thanks to an aunt who had settled in the Washington area, twenty days after arriving he landed a job in a graphic³ design firm, where he still works. The Iranian community in the D.C. area welcomed him, and pretty soon he was DJ Dariush again, playing at various Iranian functions.

"Anytime there is an event, I'm doing DJ-ing for them. Mostly I do DJ for the people that have like a wedding party, or like an engagement party, house party, birthday party. And I also play at clubs."

In fact, DJ Dariush recently mixed his pulsating⁵ dance-music mix at the Diva Nightclub, just blocks from the White House. The enthusiastic crowd was a mix of Persian and American young people. Part of DJ Dariush's appeal is that his repertoire⁶ embraces a wide variety of musical styles, including techno, Arabic, Latino and Indian, as well as hip-hop and rap. And he has an up-to-the minute knowledge of what's happening in the music world that helps him respond to the style and taste of any particular audience.

"If you want to be a DJ you have to listen to music all the time. Because you have to be up-to-date. You have to just listen to all kinds of music. It is not like you can just grab some Arabic music and play it. You have to listen to specific CDs and just pick one song, and know that that song is good for that night. I usually buy the CD, and when I'm working on my graphics, like I'm designing something, I'm listening to music at the same time."

Dariush Rateshtari does not forsee leaving his work in graphic arts to devote himself full-time⁷ to music. He says he loves both fields, and is happy that he can continue to grow in his career as a web designer at the same time he's spinning his unique mix of dance music as "DJ Dariush".

注释：
disc jockey 简称DJ，播放唱碟的人
fundamentalist Iran 信奉正统派基督教的伊朗人
fixture [5fikstFE] n. 固定某项工作的人
contemporary [kEn5tempErEri] adj. 当代的
Teheran [9tehE`rAn] n. 德黑兰（伊朗首都）
archive [`B:kaIv] vt. 储存，收集
cassette [kB:5set] n. 盒式磁带
come by 到手，获得
ingenious [in5dVi:njEs] adj. 有独创性的
emigrate [5emi^reit] vt. 移民
transition [trAn5ziVEn] n. 转变
pulsating [pQl5seit iN] adj. 有规律的跳动的
block [blCk] n. 地段，街区
repertoire [5repEtwB:] n. 节目
embrace [im5breis] vt. 包括
techno 技术音乐
Arabic [5ArEbik] 阿拉伯音乐
Latino [lA5ti:nEu] 拉丁美洲音乐
Indian [5indjEn] 印度音乐
hip-hop 嘻哈音乐
rap [rAp] n. 说唱音乐
grab [^rAb] v. 获得，猎取
graphics [5^rAfiks] n. 制图

1 fixture   

n.固定设备；预定日期；比赛时间；定期存款

参考例句：

• Lighting fixture must be installed at once.必须立即安装照明设备。
• The cordless kettle may now be a fixture in most kitchens.无绳电热水壶现在可能是多数厨房的固定设备。

2 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

3 graphic   

adj.生动的，形象的，绘画的，文字的，图表的

参考例句：

• The book gave a graphic description of the war.这本书生动地描述了战争的情况。
• Distinguish important text items in lists with graphic icons.用图标来区分重要的文本项。

4 graphics   

n.制图法，制图学；图形显示

参考例句：

• You've leveraged your graphics experience into the video area.你们把图形设计业务的经验运用到录像业务中去。
• Improved graphics took computer games into a new era.经改进的制图技术将电脑游戏带进了一个新时代。

5 pulsating   

adj.搏动的，脉冲的v.有节奏地舒张及收缩( pulsate的现在分词 )；跳动；脉动；受（激情）震动

参考例句：

• Lights were pulsating in the sky. 天空有闪烁的光。
• Spindles and fingers moved so quickly that the workshop seemed to be one great nervously-pulsating machine. 工作很紧张，全车间是一个飞快的转轮。 来自子夜部分

6 repertoire   

n.(准备好演出的)节目，保留剧目；(计算机的)指令表，指令系统， <美>(某个人的)全部技能；清单，指令表

参考例句：

• There is an extensive repertoire of music written for the flute.有很多供长笛演奏的曲目。
• He has added considerably to his piano repertoire.他的钢琴演奏曲目大大增加了。

7 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。