Popular Islamic music: local and global
New genres of popular Islamic performance: within the Muslim world, and beyond it...
Tuesday (12a)
World Music, Folklorization, and Festivalization in the Muslim World
Due
- Read: Kapchan, Deborah A. 2008. “The Promise of Sonic Translation: Performing the Festive Sacred in Morocco.” American Anthropologist 110 (4): 467–83.
- Watch: Sound of the Soul
Submit a brief review on these works, noting their connections, as two perspectives on this famous festival.
Also sample a bit of each of the following videos - songs and concerts by famous regional and international nasheed stars:
- Sharifah Khasif Fadzillah (Malaysia)
- Mahmud al-Tuhami (Egypt)
- Sami Yusef[1] (British, of Azerbaijani origin)
- Zain Bikha (South African)
- Mishary Rashid Alafasy (Kuwaiti)
- Dawud Wharnsby (Canadian)
Class
- Local popular Muslim genres, from Egypt and the Gulf to West Africa to Indonesia
- Global Muslim popular music: Nashid
- Fez Festival
- The Whirling Dervishes and Tourism in Istanbul
- Qawwali in South Asia beyond the shrine: Bollywood
Thursday (12b)
Beyond Nasheed: Popular Islamic Music in the West
Due
- Watch Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam
- Read Islam in the Mix: Lessons of the Five Percent, by anthropologist Ted Swedenburg (University of Arkansas) [Note: unfortunately many of his links are broken, but you can google to get the same or similar information]. Locate two examples of Islamic hip hop online. Explain how each conveys an Islamic orientation, based on lyrics or images or other features, and how they contrast. (You may locate examples from Swedenburg's article if you wish, or may broaden the search to hip hop worldwide.) 1 page total.
Some links related to Swedenburg's article you may like to sample as you read:
- Allah U Akbar, Brand Nubian. [2] 1992.
- It was written: The Message, Nas [3] 1996.
- Fu-Gee-La, The Fugees [4] 1996.
- gods earths and 85ers, Poor Righteous Teachers [5] 1996.
- In The Ghetto, Eric B. & Rakim [6] 1990.
- Party for Your Right to Fight, Public Enemy [7] 1988.
- Ain't No Mystery, Brand Nubian (with lyrics) [8] 1993.
- True Fresh MC, The Genius [9] 1990.
- On and on, Erykah Badu [10] 1997.
- Dog It, Digable Planets [11] 1994.
A broader sampling of Islamic hip hop (including Nation of Islam, NGE, and Sunni - along with nashid and Islamic pop generally) can be located here: Muslim Hip Hop
Ironically for some, Islam has opened a space for women especially those dissatisfied with the objectifications of mainstream hip hop culture, and sometimes deeply politically engaged. See especially:
Beyond music there is also a range of spoken word "language performance", such as "Dead Man Walking" by Amir Suleiman (whom I saw perform live at the UofA in the early 2000s, invited by the Muslim Student Association)
Class
- Trajectories in African American Islam
- Musical messaging in multiple genres