Many Arabic singers are doing the same thing as European an American ones with their video clips, words (mostly about love and relationships) dancing etc. unlike the traditional Arab singers that stand with their band and sing (Oum Kalthoom). Some, like Sami Yousef, sing more religious songs in English using Arabic phrases from the Quran which unlike other Arab singers/ songs are more traditional. His videos are still modern but more traditional in the sense that it shows people praying, the Mosque, kids etc., while others that show couples, more skin and a party environment. These types of videos influences my culture and values because as a Muslim I can relate and understand the message of the videos (such as those by Sami Yousef) and that helps me to remind myself of my origins and values as a Muslim.
On the other hand, the Arab music clips that re less traditional and more Westernized have a great leap from the Arabic and Islamic traditions and culture, having more emphasis on relationships and physical intimacy showing a false picture on these aspects of life to the youth unlike Sami Yousef’s videos that show for example, physical intimacy in the better light.
Moving on to the Western music videos. A majority of them are about relationships, their love problems or happiness (such as the R&B, Hip Hop and Rap genre) were many show more body and physical intimacy than others, which I personally think can/do direct attention from other things we could be doing instead! In my point of view, I don’t think many music videos have a political agenda, because many are shown in countries that are generally against what are shown in those videos. I feel that the music industry are just trying to satisfy the audiences wishes because people have different tastes and it is only fair to provide for each type. People want to see beautiful girls and good looking guys singing and dancing. People want to see a song about religion with a story being acted out in the music video to emphasis an aspect being viewed.
I agree that music videos can be a useful tool in increasing people awareness of their social problems with essential regard to the developing countries as a lot people watch music videos so they will view them sooner of later and they can teach people lessons such as those by Sami Yousef. Not all Western music videos are about relationships (depending on the genre). They show the lifestyles of African-American and poor people in slums which an influence the audiences actions and perspectives on society when they see what is actually going on through these videos.
5 comments:
I don’t really listen to Sami Yousef but is it really acceptable to use phrases from the Holy Quran in a song. I really think to differ. Some of us assume that just because it’s an Islamic song it means that it will always carry a positive influence on us. However, some of those songs also bear some discrimination in teaching ideologies and faith and it could insult a specific group of Muslims and I say this from a nasheed that I have listened to 5-6 years ago. However, I cannot generalize based on a couple of Islamic songs that I have heard before. I believe that there is still hope to change and alter the music industry for there are some rare examples of national and international songs such as Cat Stevens “Yusuf Islam” that strive to send the good whether in terms of religious, political or social awareness.
When it comes to your justification of the reasons behind the direction of the music industry I totally disagree with you. I don’t think that the music industry is just trying to satisfy the different tastes of its audience on the contrary it is trying to force a specific vision on the people and I believe that it is working with “Sex Sells” more than anything else regardless of the rare exceptions.
It was my opinion that some music industries produce their music videos as such manly because people have different tastes. Not everyone has the same taste so in order to attract people’s attention, they use different genres. With Sami Yousefs just uses Islamic teachings in his songs. Obviously they would come from the Quran, where else?! For example the songs about Mothers, he would say saying which we (Muslims) all know. I don’t think those Muslims that you think would be insulted by an Islamic, religious based song should worry about what is said and shown in such music videos unlike what is shown on Westernized music videos that is accepted in a Muslim country!
Hi every one this is (Nora Khalid) opinion about these them which is excellent issue to talk about it:
The music industry opened up a new front in the war. As I see it nowadays they are many kinds of music and video clips all of them are the same they don’t have some thing new, or even some thing we can learn superior thing from it as we see the singer she lay on the bed, crying and some times kill her those thing I feel it effect our relationship and don’t have any item to help out people to have or to improve their relation ships ,moreover, we see most of the Arab singer naked or wearing shame clothes trying to make it similar to the Europeans video clips which reflect a terrible image about Arab in the western world because they are Muslims and all these act not acceptable in our religion . In my opinion these kinds of music and video clips doesn't help us in any whey of learning it led people to learn so many bad thing because most of the video clips were show off . In my opinion it has a huge influence in our culture specially the teenagers because it affect their manners a lot because it give them ,or it shape their thoughts in specific circle it doesn't help them to create or to think in a proper way it led them to feel life is misery and every thing around them are black and sad because they don’t have especial issue to inform or lead them to learn from, or at lest to remember a positive thing about it since most of the video clips were similar if we watch it we can't spirited from each other that’s why we should do some thing to improve our music and video clips to not give the
Hi Hiba,
I agree with you, singers like Sami Yousef, Yousef Islam and others are sending out a very important message both to Muslims and non-Muslims through their music and video clips. They are spreading a message about love and peace and family. However, I am not sure that Sami Yousef uses Quranic phrases in his songs, its mostly general Arabic words but not phrases from the Quran.
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