MofA Week 12.

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Global representations and flows

Arjun Appadurai's "scapes"

(from his Modernity at Large (1996)

Perspectives:

  • Ethnoscape
  • Mediascape
  • Finanscape
  • Ideoscape
  • Technoscape (and here one might discuss the significant impact of the global music industry on music in the territorial Arab world)
  • We examine three perspectives on globalization of music of the Arab world:
    • Diasporic Arab musics as "music of the Arab world": music of the Arab ethnoscape, and its extension into the broader culture, cross-fertilizing existing stereotypes (orientalism)
    • The absorption of "music of the Arab world" (often diasporic) into Western music (these days, via a transnational music industry, often classified as "World Music"): Arab music of the mediascape
    • The absorption of global musics into the Arab world (especially jazz, rock, reggae, rap)

Background: Orientalism

  • History of Orientalism in art and literature
  • Representations of Oriental music, dance in painting [1] [2]
  • Representations of the "Orient" in Western art music (Mozart and others: "Alla Turca" techniques)
  • Representations of music and dance on stage, in 19th century Expositions Universelles and World's Fairs, in Europe and America.

Arab diaspora as part of the Arab world

  • Diaspora in France: Development of Rai, Oran to Paris
    • France ruled Algeria as a colony 1834-1962
    • Influx of Algerians to France
      • 1945: 350,000 Algerians in France
      • 1964: estimated 500,000
      • Early 1980s: 800,000
    • Many French of Algerian descent continue to live in the poorer banlieues (low income projects) outside Paris
    • Simultaneously rai musicians fled Algeria
    • Rai therefore developed its modern forms in Paris
    • Listening examples
  • Diaspora in America: Music of Arab Americans
    • Levantines emigrated to America from the 19th century
    • Larger numbers entered in the early 20th century
    • Most immigrants were Syrian-Lebanese Christians
    • Recreation of traditional music centered on church communities
    • hafla, mahrajan

New Orientalism: "Exotic" representations of Arab music and dance in Western popular culture

  • Arab music for Americans
  • Bellydance entertainment at restaurants
  • The Oriental Nightclub in America
  • Hollywood Bellydance (e.g. Nejla Ates (Son of Sinbad , 1955))
  • new representations in popular art
  • Participatory bellydance: a ubiquitous Western phenomenon, considered art/exercise/feminine spirituality/professional showbiz, with its own forms (e.g. tribal), often appearing in the media, e.g. the Belly Dance Superstars (Arab-American women actually play a relatively minor role in this popular culture phenomenon).
  • For discussion: how does "orientalism" of American popular culture in the 1950s and 60s compare to European "orientalism" of the 18th and 19th centuries? What has changed? What has not?

Arab music in the "world music" bins

Globalization of Algerian folk music: Rai

  • Three main phases of Rai ("opinion") music in Algeria (developing originally in western Algerian city of Oran):
    • Roots of Rai (e.g. Cheikha Remitti (1923 Tessala, western Algeria - 2006 Paris) (1930s-1960s): a form of urban folk, mixing rural genres (Beduin, Berber) and urban cabaret styles (Spanish, French, traditional Algerian, Egyptian, Islamic) & themes, instruments, and contexts, & featuring prominent female performers known as "cheikhat" (and similar to the Egyptian "awalim"). Lyrics describe social reality more bluntly than the classical "turath", using colloquial language to address political, social, and personal themes. Early rai used traditional instruments such as gasba (reed flute) and derbouka drum, but gradually accordion, violin, and drums were added. After independence in 1962 the government sometimes suppressed rai for its political critique, and women's participation declined compared to men's.
    • Pop rai on cassette. In the 1970s, cassettes transformed the scene - mediation enabled broader spread, evading supression and lowering cost via technology of cassette+synthesizer. Such music was influenced by Western content also carried by cassette, especially reggae. Against the old "shaykhat" came rise of the "shabab" (youth) (Cheb). Lyrics address youth themes, featuring "taboo" themes of frank love, eroticism, alcohol, divorce, and the music was featured in mix gender dancing. Other songs featured political protest. Music often comprised only vocals, synth, and percussion, as in much of this early Cheb Khaled mix. Unacceptable to the rising forces of Islamism, cultural guardians, or politicians, and there were attempts to ban rai. All this pushed rai into the diaspora, especially France (which absorbed an enormous influx of Algerians; France had colonized Algiers from 1830, favoring the Berber speaking Kabyles, and only departed in 1962 with independence). In the late 80s rai was accepted in Algeria as part of the national heritage. But Islamist struggles in the early 1990s created a dangerous climate for musicians; Cheb Hasni[3] was assassinated (1994) and most rai musicians laid low or emigrated. Meanwhile, Parisian "banlieues"[4] - poor neighborhoods where Algerians had settled, nurtured the music, which eventually began to enjoy wider popularity in France.
    • Rise of "World Music" Rai from the late 80s: via Paris' banlieues, eventually reaching a global audience. Indeed exponents of this music have become far better known than the bigger Arab world stars of Egypt and Lebanon. Most famous exponent continues to be Cheb Khaled, particular his global hit Didi, along with Cheb Mami (who collaborated with Sting on Desert Rose) and others, including a few female "Chebas". The new world music rai began to feature sophisticated French productions, far from simple cassette/synthesizers, and collaborations with French musicians. Enjoyed tremendous popularity back home as well, and even throughout Arab countries (in 1992 "Didi" was a huge hit in Cairo, though people couldn't understand the words!). More recently various collaborations have emerged between rai and Egyptian or Lebanese stars, the artists probably seeking influence in each other's markets (West, and Arab, respectively), e.g. Cheb Mami and Elissa from Lebanon.
  • Overview of process: interaction of technology, diasporic population, non-Arab bourgeois other-seeking consumers.
    • Whereas cassettes enabled the rise of local musics, satellite TV, internet, mobile phones have all contributed to the rise of pan-Arab music: readily available throughout Arabic-speaking regions. Technologically, media flows everywhere.
    • But socially these flows are not always symmetrical: whereas Moroccans may listen to the latest Lebanese and Egyptian hits, the reverse is less true. If Arab music today comprises five main subregions--North Africa, Egypt, Levant, Iraq, Gulf--the former is least well-connected then the others.
    • However North Africa is better globalized in the world-at-large, thanks to the "French connection." French colonialism practiced "direct" (as opposed to British "indirect") rule, and French colonies became better integrated (and in the case of Algeria completely integrated) with France. French language and education prevailed and many migrated to Paris due to both "push" and "pull" factors (given the political turbulence back home).
    • North African Arab music has thus diffused and developed through a Francophone diaspora - not only in Paris, but even as far as Montreal.
    • More recently the same linkages have enabled the development of world music from ex-French colonies, particularly North Africa and French West Africa.
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