The podcast “Styles of Music of the Arab World” discusses the many types of Arabic music that exist. The podcast is hosted by Georges Collinet, who uses interviews from experts on Arabic music as well as artists in the Arabic music tradition to tell the listener about this diverse form of music.
Arguably, one of the key features of this podcast is that Collinet, when he chooses his subject matter, does not use a strict definition of Arabic music. Instead, he wants to empashize that Arabic music is diverse. For example, in the podcast, he wants to destroy stereotypes about Arabic music that are related to classical or folklore. For Collinet, by presenting his subject matter in this way, he is stating that Arabic music is something that is living and always changing.
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"Styles of Music of the Arab World".
Therefore, based on this viewpoint, Collinet includes in his summary of Arab music, musicians who play non-Arabic forms of music. For example, part of the podcast is dedicated to how Arabic musicians interpret American jazz music. They take a distinct twist to jazz which is uniquely Arabic. Therefore, even though jazz music does not fit into the category of Arabic music, when it is played by Arabic musicians, who use Arabic musical elements in their jazz pieces, what is happening is a new style of Arabic music.
In the podcast, Collinet also introduces the listener to some of the basic styles of Arabic music, such as some type of rhythmic patterns and the use of basic instruments. At the same time, Collinet is careful to demonstrate that the concept of Arabic music is one that is very broad. This is for numerous reasons. Firstly, the Arabic world is enormous and reaches all over the continent of Northern Africa to Asia. Therefore, even though all these people speak a form of Arabic and a part of the Arabic community, they are also diverse and have their own musical styles which is unique to each part of the Arabic world.
One of the strongest features of the podcast is that it allows musicians to explain what they do and how they think about what they do. This leads to some critical opinions from some musicians, who feel that the quality of Arabic music has declined since it has become more popular oriented and taken on some bad influences from other types of music. However, there is also an optimistic viewpoint of Arabic music, because it is something that is evolving and always changing. Styles of Arabic music may be diverse, but at the same time, they are always taking on new forms and new influences.
In this podcast, I would have liked to see more focus on the history of Arabic music. I feel that there is more a focus on contemporary musicians in Arabic music. Certainly, this is logical because these are the ones performing and inventing and changing this style in our present moment. However, I would have gotten a better feel in the first podcast if Collinet gave us a better historical foundation. He does mention the history of Arabic music in his podcast, but not enough to provide the listener with a good introduction so as he or she can understand what makes this music Arabic? Is music simply Arabic if someone speaks Arabic and plays music, or comes from an Arabic country? What are some of the key motifs in more depth that make this music so distinct and rich?
However, this is a very informative podcast to the layman who knows nothing about Arabic music. The podcast gives a diverse sampling of Arabic music and this has the goal of potentially appealing to a diverse number of different musical tastes. Collinet shows us that Arabic music is not a narrow concept, but a broad concept, that incorporates many different styles and categories.
