A unique Israeli national culture—indeed, the very nature of "Israeliness"—remains a matter of debate, a struggle to blend vying memories and backgrounds, ideologies and wills. Identifying popular music as an important site in this wider cultural endeavor, this book focuses on the three major popular music cultures that are proving instrumental in attempts to invent Israeliness: the invented folk song repertoire known as Shirei Eretz Israel; the contemporary, global-cosmopolitan Israeli rock; and the ethnic-oriental musica mizrahit. The result is the first ever comprehensive study of popular music in Israel.
Motti Regev, a sociologist, and Edwin Seroussi, an ethnomusicologist, approach their subject from alternative perspectives, producing a truly interdisciplinary, sociocultural account of music as a feature and a force in the shaping of Israeliness. A major ethnographic undertaking, describing and analyzing the particular history, characteristics, and practices of each music culture, Popular Music and National Culture in Israel maps not only the complex field of Israeli popular music but also Israeli culture in general.
Popular Music and National Culture in Israel
About the Book
Reviews
“A meticulously researched survey of five decades of music in Israel.“—American Journal of Sociology
"Recommended."—CHOICE
“A fascinating study, full of interesting detail relating to a musical culture that is generally invisible beyond Israel.”—Jewish Chronicle
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction: Popular Music and National Culture
PART I: CULTURAL AND INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXTS
1. A Short Introduction to Israeli Culture
2. Israeli Institutions of Popular Music
PART II: POPULAR MUSIC AND NATIONALIST IDEOLOGY
3. Shirei Eretz Yisrael (Songs of the Land of Israel)
4. "In Spite of it All, She Has Something": Popular Songs in the Yishuv and Early Nationhood
5. The Lehaqot Tzvayiot (Army Ensembles)
6. "And the Winner Is . . . ": Popular Song Festivals
PART III: ISRAELI ROCK
7. The Invention of Israeli Rock
8. The Coming of Rock
PART IV: MUSIQA MIZRA{HU}IT
9. Musiqa Mizra{hu}it: Origins, Style, Production, and Public
10. From "Neighborhood" to the Charts: Musiqa Mizra{hu}it and Legitimacy
Conclusion
Select Discography
Works Cited
Song and Album Index
Name Index
Subject Index