Typology of Music of the Arab World
MAW: a typology of music since ~1900
NB: typologies of MAW are only feasible in the Age of Recording (i.e. ~1904 and thereafter)
- urban turath (qadim): art or elite music (by region: maghrib, sham, Egypt, Iraq, Arabia). Late 19th c to the 1920s. Diverse. Often considered to be continuous with medieval tradition, though evidence for degree of similarities is lacking. Strong Ottoman and Persian influences.
- post-turath popular tarab (by region) (jadid): western and media influence, especially via musical films. Develops from 1930s to 1970s. Convergence across AT; represents first pan-Arab musics.
- mainstream popular media musics (by region, genre): western influence. Convergence (musical sharing) and divergence (local production). Exist in and through media to an unprecedented degree; decline of live performance (studio musics, multitracking).
- folk/folkloric music (rural, beduin, lower-class urban; by region). Little unity across region.
- dance music and dance (whether "folk" or "urban")
- religious music (Islam, churches) - typically the Arabic word "musiqa" is not used
- alt-Arab: the musical avant-garde, usually creative fusions of Arab and Western.
- music of non-Arabic communities in Arab world (AS – A)
- music of border zones (edges of AT)
- music of the diaspora (AW – AT)
- Western music (pop, jazz, classical) in the Arab world
- Arab "world music"