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The Sonny & Cher Dissent and DJ Détournement Hour
NPR reports:
A new website dedicated to underground music from the Arab and Islamic world hopes to be a MySpace for musicians pushing for social change.
Fans of hits like "I Shot You Babe" -- an Iraqi ditty based on the Sonny and Cher tune -- can find the songs on the Bahrain-based Mideast Tunes site.
Esra'a al-Shafei, 24, founded the English-language site and is also director of the group Mideast Youth.
She tells NPR's Steve Inskeep that the group's music site -- a sort of regional iTunes, but free of charge -- is intended to allow musicians and listeners to connect in a part of the world where many young people feel helpless.
It's an English-language site with Western funding (private funding, that is: Al-Shafei's group wisely won't take money from the U.S. government); I have to wonder whether its core audience is located in the Mideast or here in the States. Either way, it's right to see a connection between "vulgar" pop culture and Middle Eastern dissent, a topic we've been covering here at Reason for a while now. That coverage will continue in our December issue, which will include a feature on the region's heavy metal and hip hop scenes.
If you want to hear "I Shot You Babe" for yourself, here you go:
And from the same musician, DJ Foundation, here's a little ditty about jihad:
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Waheird el-Yankoviq|10.13.10 @ 10:25AM|#
Funny.
Tanya|10.13.10 @ 10:43AM|#
Good stuff. Hope it reaches the target audience.
Cliché Bandit|10.13.10 @ 12:03PM|#
OH GOD! You have now given Warty a whole new arsenal of links with which to pepper the comments.
On a serious note, I have my doubts about the influence of music over social change. Usually, I believe, it is more in reaction to it rather than a cause. I just don't think people listen to it for that reason. In a corrolary, take for example the Def Leppard song "Two Steps Behind" being played at weddings...for cyring out loud it is a stalker song. It shows that people care less about the content than the tune most of the time. Just my BS for the morning.
Chris Issak whines but I like it
|10.13.10 @ 1:11PM|#
Currently, I think it would be a good idea for Cher to wear a veil, or sack, over her head. (before the plastic surgery, she used to be hot and exotic looking...now she just looks bizarre)
Bradley|10.13.10 @ 11:45PM|#
This deserves more comments. It's definitely one of the best terrorism-themed Iraqi dance albums I have heard in the last year or so.