Music and Media in the Arab World

by Frishkopf, Michael

• ISBN13: 9789774162930
• ISBN10: 9774162935
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-11-15
• Publisher: The American University in Cairo Press

Summary

Since the turn of the twentieth century the dramatic rise of mass media has profoundly transformed music practices in the Arab world. Music has adapted to successive forms of media dissemination'”from phonograph cylinders to MP3s'”each subjected to the political and economic forces of its particular era and region. Carried by mass media, the broader culture of Arab music has been thoroughly transformed as well. Simultaneously, mass mediated music has become a powerful social force. While parallel processes have unfolded worldwide, their implications in the Arabic-speaking world have thus far received little scholarly attention. This provocative volume features sixteen new essays examining these issues, especially televised music and the controversial new genre of the music video. Perceptive voices'”both emerging and established'”represent a wide variety of academic disciplines. Incisive essays by Egyptian critics display the textures of public Arabic discourse to an English readership. Authors address the key issues of contemporary Arab society'”gender and sexuality, Islam, class, economy, power, and nation'”as refracted through the culture of mediated music. Interconnected by a web of recurrent concepts, this collection transcends music to become an important resource for the study of contemporary Arab society and culture. Contributors: Wael Abdel Fattah, Yasser Abdel-Latif, Moataz Abdel Aziz, Tamim Al-Barghouti, Mounir Al Wassimi, Walter Armbrust, Elisabeth Cestor, Hani Darwish, Walid El Khachab, Abdel-Wahab Elmessiri, James Grippo, Patricia Kubala, Katherine Meizel, Zein Nassar, Ibrahim Saleh, and Laith Ulaby

Author Biography

Michael Frishkopf is professor of music and associate director of the Canadian Centre for Ethnomusicology at the University of Alberta, Canada. His research centers on the Arab music industry, Sufi music, and sound in Islamic ritual.

Table of Contents

Contributors	p. vii
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction: Music and Media in the Arab World and Music and Media in the Arab World as Music and Media in the Arab World: A Metadiscourse	p. 1
Historical Reflection
A History of Music and Singing on Egyptian Radio and Television	p. 67
Arabic Music Videos and Their Implications for Arab Music and Media	p. 77
Arab Music and Changes in the Arab Media	p. 91
Music and Television in Lebanon	p. 97
Mass Media and Music in the Arab Persian Gulf	p. 111
Cultural Critique, Cultural Analysis
Critique Music of the Streets: The Story of a Television Program	p. 129
Analysis What's Not on Egyptian Television and Radio! Locating the 'Popular' in Egyptian Sha'bi	p. 137
Critique Ruby and the Checkered Heart	p. 163
Analysis The Controversy over Satellite Music Television in Contemporary Egypt	p. 173
Critique Caliphs and Clips	p. 225
Analysis What Would Sayyid Qutb Say? Some Reflections on Video Clips	p. 231
Critique Images of Women in Advertisements and Video Clips: A Case Study of Sherif Sabri	p. 255
Analysis Arab Video Music: Imagined Territories and the Liberation of Desire (or: Sex Lies in Video (Clip))	p. 265
Critique The Biographies of Starlets Today: Revolutions in Sound and Image	p. 277
Analysis Real-politics: Televised Talent Competitions and Democracy Promotion in the Middle East	p. 291
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