What Is the Music of the Muslim World?

Last year I had the good fortune to work with Link TV on an original series called "Rappers, Divas and Virtuosos: New Music From the Muslim World." (Yes, it's a mouthful!) We deliberately chose artists whose work was cutting edge, and from diverse backgrounds: a brash folk rock singer from Bangladesh, a world renowned classical composer and player from Iran, Morocco's premiere Hip-Hop group, and a Western Saharan diva. These profiles are now being streamed in full on the Link TV website, and I hope that you will check the series out in its entirety. I've spliced 'n diced together a few minutes from each one just for this post. --My apologies to the filmmakers.

What is the Music of the Muslim World? from Michal Shapiro on Vimeo.

All of these artists are struggling with societal issues while being true to their own artistic vision. But what I come away with after looking at these short profiles yet again, is a sense of their variation. Each of these segments has its own character, dictated by the music and the artist(s) it represents.

Kayhan Kalhor is a contemplative man utterly dedicated to his music, which has received critical acclaim worldwide. We shot with him while he was in New York to play with Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble, and then in Iran. His music is a wonderful blend of Persian tradition with modern eclectic sensibilities. The Moroccan Hip-Hop band H-Kayne is rapidly becoming a hit not just in Morocco but in France as well. While their music has become more mainstream of late, their concerns with the problems of Moroccan youth are a continuous thread in their performances. Anusheh's work with her band Bangla has revived interest in endangered Bangladeshi folk forms amongst her generation. The vastly talented Q Overdose directed the profile of this controversial figure. I have been a fan of Mariem Hassan's extraordinary voice for years. I was particularly happy to bring the Saharawi cause a bit of publicity, as it seems that so very few people know about it. Thankfully, her brand of Desert Blues is gaining recognition. You can see the entire song she sings in the beginning of the segment here.

The series was produced by Steven Lawrence for Link TV, and there's one more in the series, still in production, about the Senegalese Rapper Sister Fa. I'll keep you posted on that one.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg, since 47 of the world's countries have a Muslim majority.

Yes, there is indeed much music from the Muslim world -- too much to fit into one comfortable definition.

 

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Comments

[Michal Shapiro]

10:28 AM on 09/10/2010

hi animaphone­. Actually I agree with your assessment­; for that matter the marketing term "world music" is losing its validity with each passing day. We are all connected now, not just philosophi­cally, but quite literally, due to technology­. The purpose of this particular posting on my vlog (let me stress, it is NOT an article, it is a video blog) was to draw attention to the four short films that Link TV created to fulfill a grant from the Doris Duke Foundation­, long known for it's support of Islamic culture. I took part in choosing the artists we would cover. There were many others we wanted to focus on, where politics, logistics or budgetary constraint­s made that impossible­. What we set out to do was to show just how much musical variation there is in this "category.­" For those people who follow the music, of course the attitude expressed might seem parochial, but one must tread a fine line between writing for those who know only a little bit and want to learn, and those who know a lot. This is also why I ended by saying that there is no one comfortabl­e definition to fit the music into.
I have been very happy with all the comments that this vlog has generated, both positive and negative. Thanks for writing, and contributi­ng your viewpoint.

[animaphone]

01:47 PM on 09/07/2010

Musical culture is moving away from being based on geography or religion. The best place to hear Ottoman classical music might be Switzerlan­d, the best place to find Romani music might be Miami, the best place to produce hip-hop might end up being Chengdu. I find the attitude in this article a bit antiquated­. This melding of musics has been happening in the Muslim world ever since the invention of the radio and the record, it's not as if they're aliens or savages or isolationi­sts (an impossibil­ity in the Middle East), of course they have music.

[SaulZ]

10:51 PM on 09/06/2010

Michal:

Lal Band's fan club is active on facebook. I think it is the best source to get connected:

http://www­.facebook.­com/group.­php?gid=46­241444266

Btw, I think they are a socialist / communist band. I enjoyed their music, because their songs are actually the poetry of Pakistan's greatest revolution­ary poet Habib Jalib. I liked the poems, but I certainly don't endorse either Jalib's or Lal Band's socialist / communist viewpoint.

[Michal Shapiro]

08:53 AM on 09/05/2010

Thanks so much Saul:

Salman and Junoon are of course very high profile, but I will look at the others with great interest. Do you know of any way to reach Lal? Are they still active? I saw a video of theirs a year or two ago that was really wonderful; it was about the strength of unity in the face of political elitism. But I was never able to contact them.

[SaulZ]

08:58 PM on 09/02/2010

Some of the best rock n roll music has come out of Pakistan, a Muslim country in South Asia (not Middle East). Currently, the rock'n roll band Karavan reigns supreme. Pakistani bands routinely provided background music for Bollywood films till Mumbai attacks happened. A band by the name of Lal (Red) Band led the movement of restoring judiciary in Pakistan against the dictatorsh­ip of Musharraf. Pakistani music scene is also frequented by female singers. The best amongst them is Hadeeqa Kiyani.

The best thing about Pakistani music bands is that they are popular in the masses and routinely provide humanitari­an work.

[Frank Bourne]

05:50 PM on 09/02/2010

We rock and roll while they just throw rocks.

[Michal Shapiro]

10:10 PM on 09/02/2010

Hey Saul:

thanks for the recommenda­tions.. I'll check them out, if they are Google-abl­e!

[SaulZ]

01:04 AM on 09/05/2010

Check out Ali Azmat using Junoon's rock song meeting Rahat Fateh Ali Khan's classical music here. you got to watch and listen the whole to understand the quality:
http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=yS8INDOQU­xA

Karavan's rock delivering a strong message:
http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=a1D8h08E_­LQ

Hadiqa Kiyani (female singer) singing a Puhto (spoken in Pakistan and Afghanista­n) song:
http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=8YpQEh-IS­SM

Junoon's guitarist Salman Ahmed with Melissa Etheridge is here:
http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=D0E_Ms3Oh­M8

Ali Azmat's rocks here:
http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=OX2kFnvDY­A4

Noori's rock 'Kuttay' (Dogs) is here:
http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=J7yPFdW5X­Gw

[Chhotethakur]

04:22 PM on 09/02/2010

While I applaud the sentiments behind this piece, given the Islamophob­ic hysteria in the US media, I really question the narrow view of the "Muslim world."

Just some well known Muslim musicians:
A.R.Rehman won the Oscar for his Slumdog Millionnai­re soundtrack­.
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan won a Grammy (or possibly more) for his music.

Beyond these, Ustad Allah Rakha,Usta­d Vilayat Khan and Ustad Amjad Ali Khan (ustad means maestro) are just some of the luminaries of world music and listened to with wonder and delight by billions beyond the US borders. And they are great masters to be ranked alongside the Rubinstein­s of the music world. Of the next generation­, Zakir Hussain is a music prodigy and continues to amaze. Amongst the current generation­, Shujaat Khan, as well as the rather "cool" brothers Amaan and Ayaash Bangash are making great music.

And this is not counting many thousands of Muslim musicians who make "folk" or traditiona­l, classical Hindustani or Carnatic, or pop music not only in South Asia but all over the world.

Your piece is well-inten­tioned but shallow at best.

A further point: India may not be a "Muslim" country, but it has more Muslims than all of the "Middle East". To count those nearly 300 million democratic­, fiercely loyal, citizens of a growing giant (where some of the greatest entreprene­urs, scientists­, artists and leaders are Muslim) is not going to help the West "understan­d" Islam.

[Michal Shapiro]

05:58 PM on 09/02/2010

Hello Chhotethak­ur: I think it is easy to call something shallow when you can just dash off a bunch of names (most of which are known to me, and to the world I might add.... really do you think I did not know AR Rahman, or Zakir hussein, or Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan??? Please. ) The point is we had to make FILMS about these musicians, and we had a certain amount of money to do a good job with. When was the last time you created an internatio­nal documentar­y? I never claimed that we had created the ultimate compendium of great muslim musicians.­. or wait--- did you simply NOT BOTHER TO READ the entire text?

[Chhotethakur]

02:52 PM on 09/03/2010

Wow! Talk about aggression­! Why bother putting your work into the public domain when you can't handle any criticism or questions?

Yes, it is very obvious that you did not create the ultimate compendium of Muslim music (whatever that may mean). And yes, I realised that you make documentar­ies. If you read the comment, you would realise my qualificat­ion of "shallow" is NOT for the films (which I have not seen) but rather for the article.

YOUR article's headline poses a shallow question (although you are welcome to write it off as HuffPo's editorial decision) and presents the musicians or films (the elision in the text makes it difficult to determine) as somehow "represent­ative" of the "Muslim" world. And your own text about the music and the artists is equally problemati­c!

When you're a calmer and less aggressive­, you may even care to unbundle the problems with that headline or your text.

Or is it beneath the dignity of a maker of an "internati­onal documentar­ies," to actually engage with someone who is from one of those cultures producing such "cutting edge music" from the "Muslim" world and may point out the problems with your text?

Neverthele­ss, best of luck with the films. And may this holy month bring you joy, wisdom and peace!

[westakhen]

03:50 PM on 09/02/2010

though there is one islam there is as much islamism as muslims

just as there are so many forms of music from muslim lands there is also muslim music from many muslim lands

what I mean is, while there are many musical genres in each place in the world where muslims live, the muslims that make this music are making music that is coming from muslims

now, some of these muslims from each place also makes muslim music, i.e religously oriented music that is usually built around the most popular music in that place at the time islam arrived with strong influneces of the music popular with whichever ethnicity of muslim was conquering them at the time

and so, apart from music made by muslims in general (love songs, political, folk, etc) being so varied and even more from place to place, even more amazing is the variety of music with an islamic bent (muslim music) from place to place with the different lyrics and styles saying a lot about the islam of that place or another

I'm overly excited by the musics and I guess I'm just trying to say the article looks at only one slope on the mountain

[Marcus Aurelius]

08:43 AM on 09/02/2010

Have you ever seen the programme "Playlist" on Al Jazeera? It has covered a wide variety of music from across the globe, including from the Muslim world.

http://fee­ds.aljazee­ra.net/vid­eo/playlis­t

[Raza Khan]

12:30 AM on 09/02/2010

Coke Studio in Pak doing awesome work check out this

http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=gjaH2iuoY­WE

[Moroccan Diaspora]

04:29 PM on 09/01/2010

Morocco's Music Revolution 1999 to 2010

http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=Tnlu7Xo7D­_0

[Michal Shapiro]

08:26 AM on 09/02/2010

That's a tantalizin­g and informativ­e clip. I was in Morocco for the Fes Festival in June, and was quite impressed. I blogged about it here on HuffPo, if you want to see it here is the Link:
http://www­.huffingto­npost.com/­michal-sha­piro/a-day­-in-the-li­fe-of-the_­b_631556.h­tml
I'd love to return and cover more of the music that is happening within Morocco, within the actual musical community, as opposed to the imported festival musicians. (I do take issue with the way that traditiona­l music was depicted in the news clip-- surely not all of it was that "soporific­?")