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Musica Mizrakhit, Israeli Rock and National Culture in Israel Author(S): Motti Regev Source: Popular Music, Vol

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Musica Mizrakhit, Israeli Rock and National Culture in Israel Author(S): Motti Regev Source: Popular Music, Vol Musica Mizrakhit, Israeli Rock and National Culture in Israel Author(s): Motti Regev Source: Popular Music, Vol. 15, No. 3, Middle East Issue (Oct., 1996), pp. 275-284 Published by: Cambridge University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/931329 Accessed: 10/05/2010 01:13 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cup. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Cambridge University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Popular Music. http://www.jstor.org Popular Music (1996) Volume 15/3. Copyright ? 1996 Cambridge University Press Musica mizrakhit, Israeli rock and national culture in Israel' MOTTI REGEV It has become an annual ritual on Israeli television that, near Independence Day, several intellectuals are gathered in the studio in order to discuss the question whether there is an authentic Israeli culture and what exactly is its nature. Soon enough, popular music turns up as a major subject. It seems that popular music has become one of the few areas in Israel in which a vivid scene of cultural activity takes place, without public funding, and which plays a role in shaping a sense of identity for various groups. There are roughly two positions in the discussion. One claims that there is no authentic Israeli culture or music. All the music made in Israel is based on and influenced by a variety of musical styles from different sources. The term 'Israeli music' is merely a title for a set of music patterns - Russian inspired songs, Medi- terranean or Arabic flavoured music, Judeo-Sephardic music, pop/rock etc. - the only common denominator for which is the Hebrew lyrics. Opposed to this posi- tion is the argument that there is an authentic Israeli music, which reflects and expresses the originality of Hebrew native culture. Supporters of this position tend to point to musicians and music that embody a successful and unique fusion of all, or part of, the styles mentioned above. This debate demonstrates a phenomenon that is not exclusively Israeli. Sev- eral music cultures coexist in Israel. However, when one views these music cul- tures sociologically, cultural and ideological forces defining a single 'national' cul- ture, and evaluating and ranking these separate music cultures in relation to it, are impossible to ignore. The driving force of this process is, of course, the ideology of nationalism, which considers the population living under the sovereignty of a state as one cultural unit - a nation. When this is not the situation (and usually it is not), various appliances are set in motion by the state or the dominant groups within it to construct such ideology.2 The work of such appliances is aimed at the construction of a wide collective consciousness among citizens of the state, a sense of identity and even common familiarity. They also work to anchor this con- sciousness in a specific set of contents and meanings that exist within forms of cultural activity: literature, poetry, food, dress etc. The point is to engrave these contents in the collective consciousness as unique and exclusive to the national culture, as an expression of its existence. In the field of music, this is expressed in the belief that the nation has, or should have, specific and unique musical languages, and that the relevant appli- ances should foster such languages. Popular music serves in this regard as a tool 275 276 Motti Regev for the demarcation and definition of national entities. Exclusions and condemna- tions are inseparable from this process. Musical styles of minorities might be pushed away from the national consciousness, while others might be stigmatised as being imitations or of foreign extraction. Hence the debates and arguments about the nature of a given national culture and the struggles (of, for example, minorities) to be included within it. The case of music in Israel is slightly different from those in other countries. Israel does not have a long-term native tradition, decidedly associated with the presence of Jews in the country, from which the state can draw its cultural mat- erials. However, since the early days of Zionist settlement, great efforts were invested in creating a typical musical language and in constructing a collective consciousness that experiences this language as an indigenous, Hebrew-native style. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate briefly the power of the national- istic world-view on music-making in Israel as an example of its power almost everywhere. Two major music cultures in Israel - musica mizrakhitand Israeli rock - will be examined to show how the exclusion of the one produces motivation and demands for inclusion in the national culture, while the cosmopolitan nature of the other exposes it to pressures to become 'national'. Music and national culture in Israel The music culture which is known as shirei eretz Israel (the songs of the land of Israel) provides a useful starting point. This is a social world of music-making that complies with the conventional parameters of 'folk' music, although not entirely. The major exception is that the composers and lyricists are known. Otherwise, shirei eretz Israel exist mostly as an oral tradition. Israelis know its main body of songs very well, although they do not necessarily own records of this music. Accordingly, the songs are not associated with specific performances. The songs used to be distributed in small booklets (called shironim), which contained the lyrics and occasionally music transcriptions. Their typical pattern of consumption is in public gatherings where there is no real division of 'performer' and 'audience.' Everybody sings together in a manner known as shira be-zibur. Singing is led by an accordion or a piano, and sometimes accompanied by slides or video. The vast majority of the songs in this music culture have a strong Russian influence because of their composers' origin. Despite this, it is the 'Israeliness' of the music that is the most institutionalised. The songs were created in the format- ive period of Israeli society (approximately 1920-1960), and as an integral part of the characteristic ideological themes of Israeli nationalism. Even in the case of love songs, lyrics valorise and deal adoringly with the scenery of the land, seasons of the year, agricultural life - and political events, mostly wars. In addition, a salient element of shirei eretz Israel is the conscious attempt made by its composers to merge their Russian heritage and formal music education with what they perceived as 'oriental'. This took the form of borrowing rhythms, song extracts or whole melodies, and inserting them into Western musical structures. The background to the lyrical themes and the orientalism of this genre was the ideological interest of immersion in the Middle East, of transformation from immigrant into native, an interest that lies at the heart of Zionism (Seroussi 1991). Although there is no musicological evidence to support it, shirei eretz Israel are experienced by many Israelis as an indigenous, authentic and unique musical Musica mizrakhit, Israeli rock and national culture in Israel 277 language. The songs, with the shira be-zibur pattern (and the 'folk dances' that were created for some of the songs) have been institutionalised as the quintessen- tial Israeli national music culture. Additional styles and songs, influenced by sources like the French chanson or American folk, as well as new songs in the traditional style of shirei eretz Israel, brought a growing use of the concept of zemer ivry (Hebrew song). It is used as a heading for every type of music made in Israel, in Hebrew, and which is consid- ered by the dominant media as a contribution or a milestone in the creation of a Hebrew indigenous body of music. Zemer ivry became a collective name, denoting all styles, music cultures and songs that are engraved in the collective con- sciousness as uniquely Israeli, that is, signs of a local, native Hebrew culture. Musica mizrakhit: from exclusion to inclusion The music culture known in Israel as musica mizrakhit (oriental or cassette music) has existed since the mid-1970s outside of the usual repertory of zemer ivry. The reliance of musicians in this genre on Middle Eastern and Mediterranean sources, the scarcity of original music, the style of singing, and the view that the performers and the audience were typically lower class, all contributed to this exclusion (see Shiloah and Cohen 1983; Cohen and Shiloah 1985; Regev 1986; Halper et al. 1989a). Despite their exclusion from the dominant 'Israeliness', musicians in this culture have enjoyed wide popularity. It has been reflected in the commercial success of leading singers and record companies, and in the emergence of a rela- tively autonomous art world in terms of production, distribution and hierarchy.
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