Page 43 - Issue 39

ELITE Vol.1, Issue 39, January 2022
Vol.1, Issue 39, January

pioneers, topping the lists of most streamed songs on
musical apps such as Anghami and Spotify. We asked
the professor if he has ever heard any rap song or
'mahraganat', and he answered that he only observes the
controversy around them on social networking sites, but
he does not listen to these new types of songs. On the
contrary, the students stated keeping up with most rap
and ‘mahraganat' songs and reported hearing them on a
regular basis.
Following the dominance of this new wave of songs,
musicians, particularly their syndicate, have harshly
criticized those new types of music, seeing “mahraganat”
as a type of song that contains vulgar words and a very
loud music genre, and rap songs are denounced because
their meaning is unclear and it is a new "style" for the
older age group. There has been a considerable
old classical music they had refused to listen to when condemnation of singers, particularly "mahraganat"
they were younger such as that of Umm Kulthum, Abdel singers, who believe that their usage of this sort of music
Halim Hafez, Mohamed Abdel Wahab, and Shadia. and speech distorts Egyptian society and has a negative
impact on it. We examined this with
People listen to particular types of music to get into a
good state of mind; so should the singers deliver a
purposeful message in their songs or to attempt to
nourish the spirit and delight of the listener? Dr. Osama
agreed that the purpose of listening to songs is to be
delighted, since he does not prefer listening to loud
music, as compared to classical songs which he finds
relaxing. The students, however, generally agreed that
they don’t have a specific goal for listening to songs as
they are mostly for entertainment, with no expectation of Dr. Osama, and whether the Egyptian public's preference
a purposeful message.
for these kinds of songs today indicates a deficiency in
public taste. He stated that if popular songs contain
negative connotations or harsh words, then there is a
defect in Egyptian public taste because this may in the
future show negative phenomena on our society and issue
facts that are alien to Egyptian values, but if the songs are
not tainted by anything, there is no objection to the
presence of new musical genres. In the students' opinion,
the spread of these types of songs does not indicate a flaw
for them. There is no single measure of public taste that
can be used to assess whether or not a problem occurred,
We began talking about the various kinds of loud music because generations differ in their ability to express
that have been the subject of recent controversy. In recent themselves and their thoughts.
years, 'mahraganat' have gained popularity among a broad With the absence of finding a single measure that states
segment of the Egyptian and Arab population. This sort how the society's taste should be - from the students'
of music have become popular at weddings and on the point of view-, we went on to ask them about what best
streets, and it received a lot of attention on the Internet, determines a singer's success, is it through the opinions of
but it was condemned by music critics and experts. critics and specialists or through the audience and how
Despite the prevailment of 'mahraganat' for several years, well they connect with their songs by Counting the
a new style of 'rap' music was launched, stealing the number of views and listens on music platforms?
spotlight from it with rappers now becoming the scene's Opinions differed, while students unanimously agreed on

42