Revolutionary Music in Lebanon and Egypt: Alternative Imaginaries for Self-representation and Participation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51480/1899-5101.15.1(30).8Keywords:
Egypt, Lebanon, changing media, revolutionary music, alternative mediaAbstract
Globally, mainstream media excludes or misrepresents many societal groups, resulting in significant community absences. In these contexts, alternative media plays a vital role in offering meaningful self-representation and political participation. This type of media becomes crucial in revolutionary contexts, where people rise against the injustices of their governments in hopes of change. This article offers a case study approach to revolutionary music in the Middle East, where we review the socio-economic and political contexts behind the emergence of alternative media in Lebanon and Egypt. We analyze our cases by using Bailey et al.’s (2007) comprehensive approaches to alternative media. We propose that revolutionary music evolves and adapts to larger changes in the public sphere. Still, as the article concludes, while music can enable a persistent community when demanding change, it does not guarantee an actual change in the political system.
References
Bailey, O., Cammaerts, B., & Carpentier, N. (2007). Understanding alternative media. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
Bajec, A. (2019, November 22). The DJ behind the sound of Lebanon’s Tripoli revolution. TRT World.
Retrieved April 2, 2022 from www.trtworld.com/magazine/the-dj-behind-the-sound-
of-lebanon-s-tripoli-revolution-31588
Barbera, S., & Jackson, M. O. (2019). A model of protests, revolution, and information. Quarterly Journal of Political Science, 15(3), 297–335.
Burkhalter, T. (2014). Local music scenes and globalization: Transnational platforms in Beirut. New York: Routledge.
Burkhalter, T., Dickinson, K., & Harbert, B. J. (2013). The Arab avant-garde: Music, politics, modernity. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press.
Byerly, I. B. (2013). What every revolutionary should know: A musical model of global protest. In J. C. Friedman (ed.), The Routledge history of social protest in popular music (pp. 229 – 247). New York, NY: Routledge.
Chehayeb, K. (2019, October 19). Lebanon protests: Thousands demand ‘fall of the regime’ in Beirut. Al Jazeera. Retrieved March 31, 2022 from www.aljazeera.com/economy/2019/10/18/lebanon-protests-thousands-demand-fall-of-the-regime-in-beirut
Dessì, V. (2020). Voicing change: The popular subject of protest music in revolutionary Cairo (2011-2013). The Open Journal of Sociopolitical Studies, 13(1), 232–255.
Eyerman R., & Jamison, A. (1998). Music and social movements: Mobilizing traditions in the twentieth century. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Frishkopf, M. A. (ed.) (2010). Music and media in the Arab world. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press.
Gadzo, M. (2019, October 22). Change the system: Lebanese protesters tell the government.
Retrieved March 31, 2022 from www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/22/change-the-system-
lebanese-protesters-tell-the-government
Jumet, K. (2018). Contesting the repressive state: Why ordinary Egyptians protested during the Arab Spring. New York: Oxford University Press.
Kamal, W. (2019). Ayami Ma’a Cairokee Wa Hekayat Geel Arad An Youghayer Al’Alam [My days with Cairokee and the story of a generation that wanted to change the world]. Cairo: The Egyptian-Lebanese House. (Kindle Edition)
Kamrava, M. (2020). A concise history of revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Khoury, N. (2020, August 10). For Lebanon, the only way out is either revolution or reform. Atlantic Council. Retrieved March 31, 2022 from www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/menasource/for-lebanon-the-only-way-out-is-either-revolution-or-reform/
Kunreuther, L. (2018). Sounds of democracy: Performance, protest, and political subjectivity. Cultural Anthropology, 33(1), 1–31.
LeVine, M. (2015). When art is the weapon: Culture and resistance confronting violence in the post-uprisings Arab world. Religions, 6(4), 1277–1313.
McDonald, D. A. (2013). My voice is my weapon: Music, nationalism, and the poetics of Palestinian resistance. Durham: Duke University Press.
Moreno, A. C. (2017). Rap beyond resistance: Staging power in contemporary Morocco. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
Parker-Stephen, E. (2013). Clarity of responsibility and economic evaluations. Electoral Studies, 32(3), 506–511.
Valassopoulos, A., & Mostafa, D. (2014). Popular protest music and the 2011 Egyptian revolution. Popular Music and Society, 37(5), 638–659.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Polish Communication Association
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
