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:
