Recording history : Jews, Muslims, and music across twentieth-century North Africa /
Christopher Silver.
- Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, (c)2022.
- 1 online resource (xvii, 300 pages) : illustrations, maps
Includes bibliographies and index.
Introduction -- The birth of the recording industry in North Africa -- The Arab Charleston and the foxtrot -- Nationalist records -- Listening for World War II -- Singing independence -- Curtain call -- Conclusion.
"A new history of twentieth-century North Africa, that gives voice to the musicians who defined an era and the vibrant recording industry that carried their popular sounds from the colonial period through decolonization. If twentieth-century stories of Jews and Muslims in North Africa are usually told separately, Recording History demonstrates that we have not been listening to what brought these communities together: Arab music. For decades, thousands of phonograph records flowed across North African borders. The sounds embedded in their grooves were shaped in large part by Jewish musicians, who gave voice to a changing world around them. Their popular songs broadcast on radio, performed in concert, and circulated on disc carried with them the power to delight audiences, stir national sentiments, and frustrate French colonial authorities. With this book, Christopher Silver provides the first history of the music scene and recording industry across Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, and offers striking insights into Jewish-Muslim relations through the rhythms that animated them. He traces the path of hit-makers and their hit records, illuminating regional and transnational connections. In asking what North Africa once sounded like, Silver recovers a world of many voices--of pioneering impresarios, daring female stars, cantors turned composers, witnesses and survivors of war, and national and nationalist icons--whose music still resonates well into our present"--
9781503631694
2022004428
Popular music--History and criticism.--Africa, North Sound recording industry--History--Africa, North--20th century. Jews--Music--History and criticism.--Africa, North Arabs--Music--History and criticism.--Africa, North