Human experiences are a matter of every passing second. Such experiences are expressed in many forms. Music is one of the most popular forms in which the human experience is manifested.
Historically, it is a common knowledge that music is used by some of the great revolutionaries like Che Guevara for political purposes, Gandhi for social movements and even now special jingles are used by armed forces across the world to keep the cadets motivated, soldiers inspired and general public interested to join the force in solidarity.
In I love Hip Hop in Morocco, hip-hop as a genre of music was seen as a tool to express free speech, love for music and solidarity. Whereas in Dissonance and Harmony, music was seen as an expression of freedom under oppressive regime/occupation, it can be seen as a language that breaks the barriers of monotony of life as just being romantic-content and verbose form. As one artist says,” Music should be used to convey the society not just love all the time.”, we see that music is perceived as communicating the silence, communicating the horrors of war and turmoil and the urge to break out and “go away”. In both films, however, it is apparent that music and lyrics are perceived by the artists as something that can soothe, and fill the void, both individual and collective. Both films not only narrated the story of the artist’s journey to a Hip hop festival or to a distant city of Los Angeles, but films also narrated the conflicts within which each of the artists had to negotiate every day.
The only woman rapper in I love Hip Hop in Morocco doesn’t only wants to express her ideas of freedom and individuality through rap, but she also has to negotiate with her family, society and her gender. In Morocco, where hip-hop or any kind of music is not in a popular traditional culture, she is trying to be a part of hip-hop festival performing with other male singers to the public. Her family is supportive but the society at large isn’t. Members of another group Fnaire, chooses not to use certain words like “fuck’ which they perceived as not being a part of their language/culture. But hip-top itself is not part of their culture too. But hip-hop is their craft and they use it to self-express. Self expression is indeed a part of their faith and culture. But the form is problematic. And hence, intense negotiation.
DJ Key, another artist abandoned his work in architecture to follow his dream of hip-hop. This is yet another site of conflict between the pursuit of livelihood and the pursuit of dream and passion. In the midst of this conflict and negotiation, what emerges is an unlikely music in the form of a hip-hop concert in the midst of an uncertain audience and an nonsupporting general societal fabric.
The groups in I love Hip-hop in Morocco expresses it desires and love for the free speech through “ rebellion” social form of expression, perceived as Western ans alien, while at the same time remaining deeply rooted to their culture, faith and families. This can be seen as a conflict between the form and the content; what the artist is expressing may get a receptive audience in a Moroccan society. So the content has a social space and “social ears” but the form, the hip-hop, is apparently too alien/anti-culture/anti-faith and unacceptable and hence we see a lack of “social eye” for this. Also, the logistical support for the artist came from an American filmmaker and the American Embassy. However, all of the support was internally raised i.e., within Morocco. The other film we saw was different on this account.
Besides, while I love Hip-hop in Morocco is an attempt by rap artists to perform in their own country and create a free speech space for themselves, Dissonance and Harmony was set in a different site; War torn Iraq, highly politically volatile Egypt, Lebanon and Jordon. The artists from these countries are in the midst of physical ruin, social isolation and under their own government’s embargo on their artistic expression. An Iraqi guitar player was banned from the television, is one such blunt example of social exclusion of artistic expression in their own nation, which was torn apart by external forces as a result of international politics. In such circumstances, their art was affected with the economy, local culture, polity and general day-to-day life’s mobility. To worsen things, the globalised media created stereotypes that completely made these artists of the Arab countries almost inconceivable in the minds of the world specially the American audience, who could only imagine an Arab with a gun and nota a guitar or a violin. This documentary therefore can be seen as a bridge-builder, between the artists of the Arab world representing their Eastern societies and the artists of America and American audience representing their Western societies. Thus the film clearly tries to break the “perceived conflict” that is created by the popular media especially the news media in the minds of the Western audience.
In both films however we see that “Americans’ are trying to popularize music, Hip-hop in Morocco and other forms such rap in the Arab countries. This can still be read as cultural imperialism, by few if not many. For, in both cases, music was the focus and the major theme of the film’s narration. Whereas many will agree that music is not the major theme in a Muslim mind in a Muslim society. It is in fact a matter of debate and controversy. It is true that music doesn’t have a language and it therefore, transcends culture in many ways yet themes such family norms, prayers, social justice, charity and community are themes which would probably be more receptive in the Muslim world and its societies.
In Dissonance and Harmony I also observed a kind of “fascination” for the west specially the US in the language and affirmations of the Arab artists.(Can we understand this also as a produce of the popular media as it created Islamophobic images and sound..?)Their desire to come to the US and perform and make space for the Arab artistic expression in the minds of an American audience was remarkable. But it would have been more remarkable if their attempts to make a favorable artistic-image were directed to their resisting governments I particular and societies in general. Clearly for this the logistical support was not available. What was indeed available was a support system to come to Los Angeles, and do a show for the American audience. This can be viewed as conflicting but justified given the resistance from the authorities to the music as an artistic form of expression in the Arab culture in general.
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