Arab youth revel in pop revolution By Sebastian Usher BBC News media correspondent
lakilsoft Agosto 15th, 2008
urface gloss Some Muslim clerics have denounced the video culture. Many Arab women say they find the videos demeaning.
And there is also concern that the classical Arab music of the past, embodied by the iconic, though somewhat dowdy Egyptian singer, Uum Kalthoum, has been squeezed out.
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“I’ve always said that if you look at Uum Kalthoum for instance – I’m touching on something from our culture – imagine her now in a video clip. It wouldn’t work. I don’t think you could have someone who looked like Uum Kalthoum being a star now,” says the Beiruti singer, Yuri Mrakadi.
He remembers a moment that perfectly encapsulated for him the Arab video culture’s infatuation with surface gloss.
“When I used to have a production house, before I started singing, I once had a major artist who came to me and said, I want to do a video clip.
“I said OK, we can do that, and I asked about the song. He said: ‘No, I don’t have the song yet, but I have the car and the villa.’ I swear to God!
“I said: ‘Oh, really. He said: ‘Yes, we’re ready.’”
Broader change?
This seemingly endless supply of new and disposable Arab pop has filtered into the wider culture.
Big hits like Haifa Wehbe’s Buss el Wawa are everywhere, even catching the attention of the region’s traditionally dour politicians.
“It’s very sexually suggestive,” says editor Habib Battah.
“It’s kind of saying ‘Kiss my little wound, My little wound needs to heal’. My little wound means wawa, so in Arabic it’s Buss el Wawa.
“The wawa has become such a buzz in cultural language that even the politicians here will make fun of it, and they will use it as a slogan, you know: ‘What is this – a wawa?’”
Looking at the apparent freedom and openness of the women in the latest videos, some in the West see them as a sign that the old Middle East of authoritarian leaders and ideological intransigence is changing.
But Mr Battah feels that this is going too far.
“There is a misconception in the West that reality TV and pop music means that the Middle East is becoming more democratic. But, you know, voting for a superstar is not the same as voting for an election.”
Source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk