Page Music and Materialism

View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by CLoK Music and materialism: the emergence of alternative Muslim lifestyle cultures in Britain Carl Morris Introduction In recent years there has been growing public and scholarly interest in British Muslim cultural production. While for the most part inadequately researched, the picture is one of an emergent middle-class generation of British Muslims who are shaping political, social and religious discourse through music, comedy, film, fashion, visual art and other forms of popular culture. While evidently comprised of many different artistic forms, networks and sub-cultures (see Morris 2016), this milieu just about hangs together as a cultural movement and helps to inform alternative Muslim lifestyle cultures for a younger generation of devout British Muslims. Music has often played a leading role in these developments, particularly with the rise to public prominence of Muslim musicians in Britain during the mid-2000s. This music is characterised by a variety of styles – including nasheed (a capella religious songs) and hip hop – and remains a largely sub-cultural phenomenon. However, there are examples of Muslim musicians in Britain who have achieved mainstream and international success. The British- Azeri musician, Sami Yusuf, for example, released his polished, professional and multi-million selling album My Ummah in 2005 – an album and subsequent career that has led Sami Yusuf to be regularly listed among the world’s most influential Muslims1. In this chapter I consider the production of music by Muslim musicians in Britain, analysing the conceptual, cultural and economic assumptions that underpin the process of producing music. As David Morgan outlines in the opening chapter of this collection, materiality can be analysed through the dimensions of production, specification and circulation. This is a helpful distinction – teasing out various aspects of materiality – but it is a process that equally requires a consideration of the interrelation between these stages of materiality. The genitive act of production itself, for example, is informed by a comprehension in the maker of need, usage, reception and wider cultural ideology. I therefore proceed in this chapter to offer a multi-focal analysis of the materiality running through Muslim musical production in Britain. This involves considering the cultural and economic landscape that both limits and enables the production of music by Muslim musicians. The findings presented here are based on ethnographic research carried out across the UK in 2010-12. This included semi-structured interviews with twenty two Muslim musicians, 1 http://themuslim500.com/ [Accessed 19.08.15] 1 | P a g e participant observation at musical and cultural events, and an online survey completed by eighty four Muslim music fans. The chapter is organised into three parts, covering musical genre, consumer culture and frameworks of production/distribution. By analysing in turn these conceptual, cultural and economic realities, I aim to demonstrate that Muslim musicians are acutely conscious of their position within a wider Muslim lifestyle culture – one that both shapes and is shaped by a process of musical production. Muslim Music: Defining a Genre The act of producing music often brings with it a comprehension of placement within a wider cultural landscape. This involves the implicit or explicit categorisation of music through genre, and a resulting feedback loop that informs the process of production. In producing music, then, British Muslim musicians often debate whether or not there is a particular genre of music that might be labelled ‘Muslim’ or ‘Islamic’. Even those who reject the term recognise that it has some practical and conceptual purchase. In handling the terms ‘Muslim’ or ‘Islamic’ music there tends to be a recognition of three features of such music: (i) music made by Muslim musicians; (ii) music containing self-conscious Islamic or Muslim subjectivities; and (iii) music that has a primary orientation toward a Muslim audience and consumer market. These loose criteria do however conceal various other complexities. I therefore propose a two-fold typology that roughly divides Muslim musicians into one of two cultural streams: ‘Islamic music’ and ‘Islamically-conscious music’. Islamic music is created by musicians who are more exclusively targeting communal and religious spheres of activity. These musicians produce paraliturgical music – music as a form of worship beyond core religious practice – that strengthens Muslim identity and focuses on local and communal belonging. Such music is produced as a means of connecting directly to Muslim cultural and religious networks, becoming an important cultural product in emergent Muslim markets and public spheres in the UK. The second stream of music – Islamically- conscious music – incorporates a range of musicians that are more ambivalent in terms of their engagement with Muslim networks. It seems to me that while such music might directly reference Islam – and it is certainly inspired by a Muslim worldview – it nonetheless attempts to deploy universal concepts in an effort to reach a wider audience. This music maintains a strong association with Muslim cultural and economic contexts, but it cannot be solely defined by these connections. The first stream of Muslim music, Islamic music, is overtly immersed within Islamic discourse and attempts to reinforce the moral coherence of a distinct Muslim community. It is 2 | P a g e partly defined by sounds and lyrical content that reference the traditions, beliefs and religious figures distinguishing Islam as a unique religion. Yet it also includes music that deals with broader concepts of Islamic morality and spirituality – ranging from love and respect for one’s mother, through to gratitude for the beauty of creation. In all instances there tends to be a clear rootedness in specific Islamic practices or beliefs. I suggest that such music can therefore be conceived as a form of paraliturgical practice. Indeed, it is perceived to exist within a spectrum of Islamic sound that is arguably reminiscent of Lois and Isma’il al-Faruqi’s typology of handasah al sawt (al-Faruqi and al Faruqi, 1986). According to this analysis, there is a hierarchy of performative sound directly shaped by a vocal tradition rooted in Quranic cantillation. This tradition holds Quranic cantillation as the exemplar sound, followed in order by: religious chants/poetry (zikr, na’at etc), vocal/instrumental improvisations, songs with serious themes, and, finally, entertainment music (al-Faruqi and al Faruqi, 1986: 457-459). I believe that Islamic music falls into the second category of this typology – religious chants/poetry – and it is telling that musicians often discuss such music by utilising the concept of ‘remembrance’. As with chanting, zikr and poetry, Islamic music is produced intentionally as a form of religious practice, celebration and reaffirmation. In the UK, Islamic music usually manifests itself in the form of contemporary nasheeds – that is, a capella pop songs containing traces of an Islamic poetic tradition. Yet it is important to remember that Islamic music is not confined to any one particular style – it is the words and intent that determine whether music might or might not be considered Islamic. As Amran, from Aashiq al-Rasul explained, Islamic music covers multiple genres: Who can say it is to do with a particular genre, or that a certain genre only constitutes Islamic music? You can’t say that, because you have today Islamic music composed and performed in many genres or styles like Country and Western, Hip Hop, Rap, R&B. (Amran, 34, October 2010, Birmingham) Referencing an American Muslim ‘country and western’ musician from rural Oklahoma – Kareem Salama – Amran is suggesting that it is the intention of the musician that marks music out as Islamic, not the actual style or genre of music itself. Indeed, according to Amran and many other musicians, of central importance is the intention to remember God and the Prophet Muhammad, as well as the desire to celebrate Islam and express a Muslim worldview: Intention is central in a Muslim’s life, in whatever we do, if your intention is sincere, your prayer is accepted… [So] if I were to give a definition of Islamic music, it would be focussing on the words and meanings of the lyrics… Vocally, there are certain words which you could say, are through and through Islamic. They remind or educate the listener about God or Prophet Muhammad, Peace Be Upon Him. (Amran, 34, October 2010, Birmingham) 3 | P a g e Amran is arguing that the intention of the musician connects directly to the experience of the listener. Musicians and nasheed artists are therefore mediators of faith, transmitting religious experience and spiritual emotion through their performance and music. This requires a pureness of intent as well as a pureness of form. It emphasises communal gathering and the sharing of religious experience through the mediated form of music. An examination of the music produced within this genre clearly demonstrates that four central themes repeatedly emerge to almost the exclusion of anything else: Praise to Allah and/or the Prophet Muhammad. Celebration of Muslim practice – most commonly Ramadan, Eid, the act of marriage and other practices relating to fasting, charity, prayer and pilgrimage. Reaffirmation of Islamic values – often relating to modesty, gender roles and respect for one’s parents. Reference to Muslim history – whether specific historical events or highly respected individuals. The predominant purpose of Islamic music, then, is to strengthen the bonds of communal solidarity and identity through shared beliefs, practices, values and history. In Britain, Islamic music – with an emphasis on tradition and meaning – is overwhelmingly produced in the stripped-down modern nasheed style. While the celebratory and communal role of Islamic music is perhaps most significant, it is also perceived to act as a form of religious pedagogy. Through Islamic music – in whatever form or style – Muslims are able to learn about their religion in an accessible way.

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