Politics, Ethnic Identity, and Music in Israel: The Case of the Moroccan Bakkashot

Seroussi, Edwin

doi:10.2307/833897

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…34 I. Webster-Kogen Brinner 2009: 215;Seroussi 1986) that has exceeded expectations in international record sales and in critical and national commercial success for an Israeli band.…”

Section: Strategies Of Nationalism and Cosmopolitanismmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…One might describe the IRP's overall sound as the 'melting-pot aesthetic', a multiculturalist impulse towards syncretism (Brinner 2009;Regev 1996, Regev andSeroussi 2004;Seroussi 1986). Less a fixed musical style than a set of fusion strategies, the trend in the recording industry from the 1970s was to blend ostensibly contradictory styles of European and North African/Middle Eastern music (and, once the peace process commenced, local Arabic music) as a way of showing solidarity between different groups (Brinner 2009: 88).…”

Section: 'Mima'amakim' and Coded Progressive Nationalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Song Style as Strategy: Nationalism, Cosmopolitanism and Citizenship in The Idan Raichel Project's Ethiopian-influenced Songs

Webster-Kogen¹

2014

Ethnomusicology Forum

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Over the past decade, the State of Israel has approached pariah status in political debate, and its cultural sector and economy have been subject to boycott. Nevertheless, one multi-ethnic band has cultivated critical acclaim and a transnational audience by preaching integration and co-existence. This band, The Idan Raichel Project (IRP), advocates an Israeli society that accepts minorities and incorporates this worldview into a syncretic musical style that draws from the diverse influences of Israel's citizens, particularly from its Ethiopian minority. Yet, the IRP has drawn critique for enacting a hierarchy within the band between labour and management. Meanwhile, the IRP's approach to nationalist discourses is conventional, with the main discourses and apparatuses of the State-the military, the status of Israel as Jewish homelandremaining uncontested. This article engages the dialectics of nationalism and cosmopolitanism in the IRP's Ethiopian-influenced songs. Through close analysis, I will argue that songwriter-producer Raichel projects a progressive nationalist ideology, framing Ethiopian-Israeli social problems within national/ist Israeli narratives of Home and Return. The band's musical texts might thus be considered a contact zone where struggles over power and exclusion are negotiated and contested in a public, global forum. Raichel's representation of Ethiopian music and musicians enacts a set of power relations that promotes nationalism and cosmopolitanism simultaneously. Through the analysis of three songs, I will argue that the IRP deploys a particular style of 'discrepant cosmopolitanism' as a deliberate political strategy, positioning the band's elite audience above polarising discussions of conflict and state legitimacy.

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“…34 I. Webster-Kogen Brinner 2009: 215;Seroussi 1986) that has exceeded expectations in international record sales and in critical and national commercial success for an Israeli band.…”

Section: Strategies Of Nationalism and Cosmopolitanismmentioning

confidence: 93%

Section: 'Mima'amakim' and Coded Progressive Nationalismmentioning

confidence: 99%