Save

On the Origins of Pop Rai

于Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication
著者：
Ted Swedenburg University of Arkansas

Search for other papers by Ted Swedenburg in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed Close
在线出版日期:
29 Mar 2019
Download Citation 获得许可

Access options

Get access to the full article by using one of the access options below.

Institutional Login

Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials

Login with Institutional Access

Purchase

Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):

€36.93
Add to Cart

Other access options

在DeepDyve上租借
找回访问令牌

Abstract

In this paper, I examine the emergence of pop rai in western Algeria during the 1970s and the subsequent transformation of rai into a very different sound, and a national and international phenomenon. The study is based in part on an analysis of previously hard-to-find pop rai recordings now available on the internet. Pop rai’s origins are in the rural music of the male performers of bédoui music and particularly the female cheikhat. After independence, constraints were imposed on female performances, and so, during the 1960s, male singers, most famously Belkacem Bouteldja, began to record a modern version of the cheikhat repertoire. Messaoud Bellemou, a trumpet player from the city of Aïn Témouchent, played a major role in the further development of the music; he created an ensemble that included singers like Boutaïba Sghir, Belkacem Bouteldja, Hamani Hadjoum and Younes Benfissa, that modernized the instrumental backing and overall sound of western Algeria’s local folkloric music, and thereby created the genre known as pop rai. Other artists who played a role in the development of pop rai include the Oran-based Chaba Fadela, who started her career with Bellemou’s group, Cheb Khaled, and Groupe El Azhar; and from Sidi Bel Abbès, guitarist and singer Ahmed Zergui. During the 1980s, rai music became national, and producer Rachid Baba Ahmed of Tlemcen further modernized its sound through the use of electronic keyboards. By the late 1980s, rai had become international, a new generation of artists had emerged, and the ensembles and artists that forged pop rai in the 1970s were displaced. Today those artists are largely forgotten, and this critical period in the history of rai remains seriously understudied.

题名:
On the Origins of Pop Rai
文章类别:
Research Article
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1163/18739865-01201003
Language:
英文
Page Range:
7–34
Keywords:
rai; Messaoud Bellemou; pop-rai; music; Algeria
原题名:
Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication
卷/期:
卷12: 期1
出版社:
Brill
国际标准刊号（电子版）:
1873-9865
国际标准刊号（印刷版）:
1873-9857
主题:
General, Middle East and Islamic Studies, Sociology & Anthropology

内容统计数据

全部期间 过去一年 过去30天
摘要浏览次数 2340 200 21
全文浏览次数 187 19 1
PDF下载次数 345 64 4