Popular Music and National Culture in Israel

Popular music in Israel has recently seen a surge in the use of Arabic in music made by Israeli-Jewish musicians. Most of these, although descendants of immigrants from Arab countries, never acquired Arabic at home or in school, owing to national ideology which sought to label Arabic as the language of the non-Jewish other. This article reveals and contextualises this recent trend, offering a typology of the ways in which musicians engage with Arabic, their motivations for doing so and the challenges that they face. Discussing musicians who approach Arabic as Jewish heritage, as an aesthetic repository, or even as mere sound, we identify these mobilisations of Arabic as postvernacular uses of language, which often privilege its non-semantic qualities. Observed in the context of Israeli–Arab enmity, this trend appears to have emerged surprisingly not in spite of, but partly because of, the decline in peace prospects.

Section: Arabic In Popular Music By Israeli Jewsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: ‘Kuwaiti Reggae’: Arabic As Stylementioning

confidence: 99%

Sounding Arabic: postvernacular modes of performing the Arabic language in popular music by Israeli Jews

Erez¹,

Karkabi²

2019

“…Rock, for example, gradually took root from the 1960s onward alongside many of its artistic and aesthetic elements. However, as Regev and Seroussi (2004, p. 137) note, in the process of ‘Israelisation’ local rock was neutered from many conceptual aspects associated with the term Rock (e.g. rage, sexuality, hedonism, etc.).…”

Section: The Language Of Truthmentioning

confidence: 99%

In quest of truth: the meaning of message making in Israeli rap

Dorchin¹

2015

This article explores the meaning of ‘message’ in rap made in Israel. I suggest that since Israeli rappers perceive rap not just as music but as an instrument for the articulation of one's true self, they invest heavily in the notion of truth, rendering the making-of-a-message a message in its own right. I draw on two different analytical methods to explore the meaning of truth in this context: text analysis, based on a ‘word-system approach’, and ethnography of performance. The analysis of speech strategies exposes the different aspects attached to the idea of truth, and this is complemented by my fieldwork experiences, which illustrate how these aspects and perceptions are being practised during performance. I argue that for Israeli rappers the ideals of message making and ‘keeping things real’ draw simultaneously on the global stylistic capital of hip-hop and on local traditions of straightforward verbal expression.

“…Classification of the ‘Song of Camaraderie’ as a popular artefact might come as a blow to many Israelis, since this song counts in Israeli culture as a paradigm for solidity (Regev and Seroussi 2004, pp. 49–50).…”

Section: Estranged Quotations In Service Of Political Critiquementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The suffix where the quotation takes place has no counterpart in the original version. For a general study of the place of army ensembles in Israeli culture, see Regev and Seroussi (2004, pp. 90–112).…”

Section: Endnotesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The estranged quotation in Israeli popular music

Goldenberg

2013

Israeli popular music includes many quotations from earlier Israeli songs as well as other Israeliana references. Quotations may take various forms, from cover versions to the mere evocation of song titles. This phenomenon preceded the rockisation of Israeli music, had its apex in the 1970s with early rockisation, and is continuing today, despite a certain decline. The purpose of the quotations is often a mere interaction with traditional materials, but it also sometimes expresses a striving towards an experience of life that is more sincere. Two subtopics of special significance are adolescence and political critique. Since earlier hegemony in Israel was maintained by the old left, the rock music rebellion was not as anti-capitalistic as in the Woodstock Festival, rather manifesting anti-authoritarian trends similar to (but milder than) those encountered in Eastern Europe.