My paper examines the agents, structures and factors that were decisive in processes that led to the production of government-sanctioned pop music, and its broadcast on Iran’s state television and radio, starting in the mid-1990s. Following Iran’s revolution of 1979 and the formation of the Islamic Republic, revolutionary cultural committees were erected to direct and control the shape, content and distribution of all forms of cultural production, chief among them music, as music’s legitimacy has long been contested within Islam. In this paper, I look in particular at a pivotal turnaround decision by the Iranian government to engage in the production of fast-paced pop music, after more than a decade of stringent regulatory measures that only allowed for traditional Iranian music as well as somber religious and war music. This decision led to the creation of an entire industry of pop music producers, performers and distributors who to this day contribute to a strictly regulated but nevertheless burgeoning musical field. While “depraved” pre-revolutionary pop music was banned soon after 1979, the state, conscious not only of a young population’s desire for a more uplifting music, but also of an increasingly integrated world where access to foreign creations through satellite television and the Internet was becoming ever more possible, devised its own strategy for producing pop music that was acceptable within the parameters of the Islamic Republic, as determined by various persons and institutions, such as certain ulama, the culture ministry’s Music Council, the Supreme Council for Cultural Revolution, and the Organization for Islamic Promotion. Based broadly on Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of the field and habitus, my research moves between two integrated levels of analysis, whereby a picture is drawn of the mutually conditioning structures and agents within this field, as well as the form and content of the ensuing product. Drawing on my fieldwork in Iran, which includes in-depth interviews with officials, artists and producers who were instrumental to this process, I study the policies that were implemented (structures), highlight the most influential decision makers (agents), and examine how their views were informed. Here I also study the role of religious versus cultural considerations, and the justifications utilized for these decisions. Finally, my paper discusses the broad social and cultural impact of the outcome of this policy, and briefly examines a few cases where government positions have been negotiated and contested by musicians and consumers alike.