MBAs, Media & the Middle East. » Music

musical zeroes.

shehab — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 10:10:28 +0000

2000-2009. decadent playlist.

a forest in the fire | david sylvian / fennesz [2003] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Obc-NMr2mU
angola | carl craig / pepe bradock / cesario [2003] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJjnAQLl9vQ

NME’s top 50 albums of the noughties revealed (guardian.co.uk)
[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #2 LCD Soundsystem – Losing My Edge (tynansanger.com)

The Day Pop Died?

shehab — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 09:43:58 +0000

There’s no doubting Michael Jackson’s passing was a global cultural moment. Like so many others I spent the following days watching every MJ video produced, revisited the albums and reminisced about seeing him live and the many memories he soundtracked.
Throughout was also a niggling question: who else would bring the world together in passing? Would any of our current crop of music superstars have anywhere close to this impact on passing?

Minding Michael Part One : A Good Time

Qool DJ Marv Aural Memoirs & the Buttamilk Archives

Mark Gimein writes in New York Magazine:

The Empire Strikes Back

Over the years, a lot of folks—some worried about how to sell movies and records, some worried about the state of the culture, some peering into the future of media—have seesawed back and forth about how much blockbusters like these will rule the culture business. The most influential best-seller of the 1990s on the subject was economist Robert H. Frank’s Winner Takes All Society, which argued that more and more of the spoils in every field would be concentrated among a few winners. On the other hand, more recently, Wired editor Chris Anderson, in The Long Tail, argued the opposite: that media was progressing toward an ever-growing “long tail” of niche interests.

Minding Michael Part Two : Dreamer

Qool DJ Marv Aural Memoirs & the Buttamilk Archives

So is this the end of Pop? Of course not, but the era of universal global blockbusters may have passed.

Oliver Wang explains this from a DJ’s perspective:

The thing is…it’s so easy to get the party started with MJ, it’s like an unfair advantage over the audience. It’s so easy that I’ve usually avoided playing anything too obvious by MJ simply because…it’s too easy.

And I was thinking: who else comes close to having that kind of power? The only artist even in the conversation is Prince but even then, we’re talking about Purple Rain-era Prince mostly whereas with MJ, you can drop everything from “I Want You Back” (1970) to “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” (1979) to “Billie Jean” (1982) to “Smooth Criminal” (1987) and it’s on like Donkey Kong.

His MJ mix is required listening.

Eminem, Radiohead, JT and Beyonce are all incredible artists but I can’t imagine any of them having the universal impact that MJ had. Gimein talks about the emergence of a fat middle:

The single hit has given way to the multi-blockbuster summer.

Not quite the end of Pop then, but the end of Pop as we have known it, as epitomized by MJ.

Sonic Tributes
Jay Electronica

Erykah Badu and The Roots

DJ Premier

Dilla / Tribe / Ali | HIStory remix

The Roots / Jimmy Fallon

Druffalo

More MJ amusement from NY MAG:

Motown is 50.

shehab — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 07:50:05 +0000

What’s with the sudden press love? 7 Days have a quote from me on the seminal Motown label turning 50. Ohm Records / Electric Motel’s Satyen Choksi and Neil DJ Solo are far more eloquent.

BBC 1Xtra are celebrating with a Golden Motown Weekend.

Thank you Detroit: J Dilla, Carl Craig, Electrfying Mojo, Derrick May, Donald Byrd, Ted Nugent, Aaliyah, MC5, Iggy, White Stripes, Recloose, Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, Moodymann, Theo Parrish, Amp Fiddler, Waajeed.

A to Z of Motown (news.bbc.co.uk)
Music and motors (news.bbc.co.uk)
Happy Birthday Smokey (middletownmike.blogspot.com)
kings of leon vs. the four tops – mashup! (popbytes.com)
Motown – Unique Genre of the 1960s and 1970s (psychedelichippiemusic.blogspot.com)
Posthumous J Dilla album on the way (pastemagazine.com)
TED NUGENT: Classic Titles To Be Reissued (roadrunnerrecords.com)

alt.MiddleEast.

shehab — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 00:36:05 +0000

Ruba Saqr writes excitedly about INCOGNITO a recently launched website that seeks to promote alternative arts in the Middle East. I applaud the initiative but am amazed that the site still seems to be focused on pedaling CDs and books rather than streaming music, selling downloads, building a community etc. This seems especially pointless in the Middle East where both e-commerce and physical content sales have never amounted to much.

I am sure it will develop in that direction and it’s certainly a good starting point. The artists featured do represent the exiting sub-surface Middle Eastern creative movements taking place. What I envision is a diverse but tightly edited site constantly featuring new content, reviews and news etc with social-networking / forum / review functionality built-in, launched in partnership with major brands targeting the Middle East youth. Think RCRDLBL or Viceland.

In related news, I launched an MP3 blog at radio.misuc.com exactly 6 years to the day from the first mis presents Bidoun event in Dubai (an awesome multi-media joining the dots extravaganza feauring music, dancers, art, film that took place at Kasbar Sep 13 2002).

Image by shehab.hamad via Flickr

Creativeconomy – Ahmed Fahmy.

shehab — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 14:35:31 +0000

Driving back to the suburbs Tuesday night from an interesting meeting with Will Ward, editor of Arab Media & Society I was tuned in to the dependably entertaining company of the Erin and Zack show on Nile FM who were promoting a DJ Fido hip hop album launch party taking place at Al Sawy Culturewheel right as I was driving by it in Zamalek so I stopped to check it out.

The venue was a real find. It’s built into the foot of a Zamalek bridge underneath one of the city’s primary elevated traffic arteries. There’s an outdoor garden and two auditoriums and the eclectic programming (experimental theater, comedy, music) is on the alternative side.

Unfortunately the talent was less exciting – mostly generic MC’s over generic hip hop beats (Fido in particular needs to give up the RnB crooner pretensions) although there was a young tall scraggy kid from Alexandria that could be groomed into an Egyptian Mike Skinner.

Digging a little deeper into the Egptian musical landscape I came across Ahmed Fahmy, a finalist last year in the British Council‘s International Young Music Entrepreneur of the Year award. He had this to say about the music industry in Egypt:

“Egypt’s music industry is characterised both by negative and positive points.

The negative ones are:

Copyright – the main issue faced by the Egyptian music industry is the enforcement of copyright law. Although copyright law exists in Egypt, it is not enforced efficiently by the relevant authorities;

Production quality – Egyptian production is of low quality especially regarding the post production (mastering) and manufacturing stage, on post production: only a few studios are equipped wit the proper mastering equipment and lack the professional operators to use correctly. Producers also still prefer low quality and low cost tape cassettes as their preferred output format;

Lack of trust between artists and producers with regard to royalty distribution – Egyptian artists do not trust their producer to fairly distribute their royalties on sales. Their agreement is therefore based on a lump sum payment to be paid in advance to the artist. Such arrangement provides little incentive for Egyptian artist to further promote their releases, since they do not gain any royalties from furthering their sales. Furthermore, the producer often offer new talents unfair contracts aimed at monopolising the talent for years to come with little rights left to the artist. This always causes problems between the artists and their producers;

WWW: The clash between the www and the music industry is a problem faced by music producers s all over the world. Major production companies are still struggling with the challenge of utilising the internet as an effective distribution channel. Their biggest challenge at the moment is how tot deal with the P2P (peer to peer) redistribution of musical content. In Egypt producer are still struggling with pirate website that offer free downloads of their products.

Music retail outlets: With the exception of the newly opened Virgin megastore, Egypt lacks professional music retail outlets and all is based on street kiosks.

The positive ones are:

Talent abundance – Egypt is full of great talent waiting to be discovered;

New positive reforms – in the media sector especially in radio and satellite TV is definitely a plus to further promote and develop local and international talents in a free and relatively independent environment;

Explosion of underground talents though new live circuits – The last 2 years have marked the launch of a new underground alternative, and bands like West Le Ballad, Iftikasat, and Vibe. Their rise is associated with the rise of alternative cultural venues such as the El Sawy Cultural wheel which plays an important role in showcasing and promoting these bands. The bands are already developing a large fan base and are quickly making their way to main stream. Major brands are now sponsoring alternative band concerts such as the SOS music festival in Maadi, which has already proved to be very successful amongst the youth;

International concerts – Egypt is being put slowly in the international concerts tour map with major artists planning the Middle East and Egypt as a destination and part of their world tours;

The opening of the new, Virgin Mega store.

It’s amusing how a Virgin Megastore opening in this part of the world is greeted by cheers from the alternative music scene whereas the major chains would be derided in the US or Europe. In the Middle East (maybe outside of Beirut) Virgin usually does a better job than the local indie players (where they exist) at stocking both mainstream and niche content. It’s just not feasible to compete with their economies of scale.

Copyright is now a universal challenge for the music industry and if anything grass-roots bands like Wust ElBalad have masterfully used the web and social networks to build their fan bases and garner mainstream attention (I plan to write more on Wust ElBalad soon). The quality of local productions do seem to be far lower than international norms

I believe there is tremendous untapped opportunity in the Middle East music scene in general to develop innovative youth music movements. What is needed are fresh music labels, production talent and smart web-distribution strategies.

Bill Grueskin welcomes the incoming Columbia J-School class.

shehab — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:32:28 +0000

Bill Grueskin, former deputy managing editor for news at The Wall Street Journal, where he oversaw the development of the Journal’s wsj.com welcomed the incoming Columbia J-School class as the newly appointed Academic Dean. He discusses RSS readers and the increasingly pull-environment of news intake, engagement in a digital world and signs off with a grand “You have a responsibility, now, to our industry”. There’s no doubt it’s an exciting time to be studying journalism.

Wall Street Journal: Bill Grueskin quits paper

MTV Arabia.

shehab — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 22:27:57 +0000

Dana El Bataji writing for Arab Media & Society believes that MTV Arabia

“has not only translated a western medium to suit an Arab audience; it has also translated the western definition of what is and isn’t cool and made it pertinent to the region. That is, by all accounts, a laudable feat, especially given the cultural, social and political divides between the west and the Arab world.”

Wow. Really? Unfortunately I have yet to watch MTVa, not for lack of trying, I can just never seem to find it on the box, so I can’t really comment directly on its laudable feat.

I was interviewed by the MTV international research team in the pre-launch phase (which in typical, and thusfar successful, Dubai Inc / AMG style was highly-condensed; speed to market paramount, thoroughness and preparation secondary) during their field-tour of the region as they looked to connect with and make sense of the attractive demographic called ‘Arab Youth’. Tantalizingly, youths under the age of 24 now make up 50-65 percent of the population of the Middle East (Brookings Institute).

The MTV researchers (these guys’ jobs were to basically travel the world identifying global youth cultures – rad) were obsessing over the conservative values of the ‘Arab Street’ and its much-trumpeted anti-American sentiment.
Now I admit that my experience working in the Middle East, predominantly marketing and selling American and European brands to kids in the region (often appropriating regional creative talent to achieve the task), may have provided me not with a skewered sample, one not totally representative of the region’s youth population. Our audiences have usually been in the mid-to-high socio-economic brackets, well-traveled and open to the arts. But surely this is the very same audience MTVa is targeting. I don’t see the channel winning over the (definitely present) conservative contingent which in any case probably isn’t of great interest to the prospective MTVa advertisers. The fact that the channel predominantly broadcasts in English, playing English-language music videos and MTV’s internationally syndicated shows (Cribs etc) will in itself filter out much of the conservative audience.

I believe MTV and US brands in general are mistakenly overly-concerned with the feared ‘Anti-American’ impact, particularly when it comes to kids’ actual purchasing decisions. American brands continue to be supremely popular across the region and in particular in Saudi, easily the most important Middle East market and especially so for MTVa (SA is make of break for the channel – that is the market broadcast advertisers spend their budgets on). This has continued to be the case even during the last few years of unprecedented and genuine regional frustration with US foreign policy. It’s always interesting to compare the divergence between regional youth surveys (plenty of venting) and actual spending patterns where Western and US brands continue to perform exceedingly well amongst the youth brackets.
The power of the MTV brand internationally has always revolved around its anti-establishment credentials and it should be no different to kids in the Middle East. They will see right through a diluted, self-censored, polite MTV.
Kids in this part of the world are no less rebellious, angst-ridden, cynical etc than those in MTV’s other markets, and they are certainly no less sophisticated at identifying disingenuous brands. With MTV a much diminished cultural force internationally, this isn’t the time for dilly-dathering fence-sitting circumspection, it’s the time for bold, confident ground-standing, feather-ruffling, two-fingers to the system type stuff.

And yet this is indicative of the path chosen by both Viacom and their regional partner AMG (the latter’s perspective is understandable, it is after all a Dubai-government wholly owned entity):

Al Marzouqi is quick to defend the channel’s decision to openly censor inappropriate content: “We’re applying the standards of the region to the channel. We’re not applying global standards. Cutting scenes is normal, and we’re dealing with it. We want a safe channel that people can watch with their families.”

All in the fear of offending the mighty Saudi market.

Perhaps even more worrying was the fact that MTVa’s online strategy was ‘something to be worked out once the satellite channel was successfully up and running’. These kids like kids everywhere are anchored online, looking up at the TV as and when something interests them.

Purely anectodally, MTV Arabia doesn’t seem to have hit a nerve yet (it’s never on, no one talks about it- although there was some negative buzz about the winner of the VJ competition, it’s facebook + myspace that set the pulse), although I admit I am too old to truly be in tune with the target audience.

On the commercial front, it’s too early to judge one way or the other on the channel’s success. The regional broadcast industry is notoriously secretive and often non-commercially driven which makes assessing the market response that much more difficult. But what other youth-oriented platforms are available to advertisers? There’s Rotana, ShowTime etc but it is a niche that needs filling and on that count alone, the odds are MTVa will probably be a financial success in the medium term.

Disclosure: We (9714) were invited to pitch for the MTV branding which we lost (with a far cooler creative direction!) but this isn’t me being bitter! and Chadiyo (director of some of the video clips) is an old friend and one-time collaborator.

Film in Lebanon.

shehab — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:13:37 +0000

I have watched three Lebanese films this Summer, all worth mentioning.

Caramel

Caramel is a well-made film by Nadine Labaki (it was Lebanon’s official Oscar submission for best film in 2007) who directs, co-writes and stars, that takes us into the world of women in Lebanon. It’s predominantly set in a beauty salon (caramel is the name given to the waxing mix in Beirut) and features a cross section of Beiruti female society: moslem, christian, old, young, lesbian, adulterous, marrying, senile, menopausing, weaving it all together in a touchingly humanistic narrative.
Labaki admirably wanders through the film’s many characters’ troubled lives often without resolving their concerns. Beiruti politics make a few discrete interjections but the focus remains on the frustrated characters who are all portrayed with loving sensitivity (the cast of mainly non-actors is impressive throughout, more son than Nadine in fact). There is a genuine feeling of sorority created that the viewer connects with.

Although in essence a chick-flick, it rises above the standard genre-movie (which is dispatched well enough) as a delicately portrayed picture of the minor, universally resonant details of life as women who happen to live in Beirut. An impressive if humble debut by Labaki who is probably one to watch.

West Beirut

West Beyrouth (Beyrouth Al Gharbiyya) (West Beirut) by Ziad Doueiri (who was cameraman on Quentin Tarantino films) is set in a bubbling pre-civil war mid-1970s Beirut and is centered around Tarek, a teenage high-school student and only son of loving parents (Carmen Lebbos and Joseph Bou Nassar). Tarek is played by the director’s younger brother, the character is going through that self-centered, annoying pubescent phase of growing up and unfortunately Rami Doueiri only really captures the annoying part of the role well.
As we see the beginnings of the civil war unfold around the characters it becomes increasingly difficult to feel empathy towards the care-free star and his cohort of still innocent friends as they dot around an increasingly divided and dangerous city in attempts to develop super8 footage of a sexy aunt and to find the legendary brothel of Umm Walid dodging bullets, checkpoints and demonstrations with the careless confidence only possible in early youth. The casting of Tarek is perhaps the movie’s only let-down.
It is shot beautifully (Beirut and the parents especially) in saturated, green-hued tones reminiscent of a slightly-toned down Youssef Nabil photograph.
Indeed the relationship between the parents is the film’s emotional heart and the scenes of them fighting and making up amidst the confusion of how to react to the chaos around them are the most affecting.
Again a very impressive debut and Doueiri is definitely one to keep an eye on.

A Perfect Day (Youm Aakhar)

A Perfect Day was the movie I had heard least about and quite frankly only picked up because I saw that Soap Kills and Scrambled Eggs had worked on the soundtrack.
And wow, I am so thankful. This film completely blew me away. Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige (Both university professors in Beirut) have instantly become important artists for me.
We tail Malek (Ziad Saad) around Beirut for a couple of days as he navigates his city, deals with and avoids as best he can his over-demanding mother, chases his ex-girlfriend Zeina (Alexandra Kahwagi) who does her best to avoid Malek whilst officially filing legal claims to recognize that his father who has been misisng for 15 years is dead, all the while desperately fighting off a sleep disorder problem which causes him to fall asleep if he’s idle for more than a few minutes (even at a dragging red-light in Beiruti traffic).
None of that really matters though. Hadjithomas and Joreige (whose own uncle is one of the 17,000 reported missing during the war in Lebanon) masterfully create a slightly suffocated, latent tone of over-sexed, guilt-infected, hedonistic, nihilistic, vacuous spirit that is youth in Beirut. The inertia is stifling and at once beguiling. Beirut is captured in all its wonder and wants. Ziad Saad Julia Kassar who plays the mother are superb. The soundtrack, the reason I discovered the film, is one with the visuals and mood, which in this exemplary example of non-narrative, emotional film-making is paramount.
A perfect film.

Not unexpectedly (Beirut has been a vital cultural force in the Middle East for a long time), these Lebanese films indicate that Lebanon has much to offer the Middle Eastern film ouvre, I will definitely be spending more time and money at the airport Virgin on my next trip.
All the filmmakers share an evident and pronounced love for their city (and Beirut, so very lovable, is particularly photogenic, cinematic and receptive in this regard).
The films also share a palpable sense of lament.

I wonder what how they fared commercially (the first two as A Perfect Day is a decidedly non-commercial film).

Figures I have been able to find indicate Caramel has grossed US$13,209,000 globally (as of 07.31.08) having cost US$1.6 million. Here’s a hint of where the success came from a la Wikipedia:

In France, Caramel topped number 7 position in the box office for 3 weeks following its release. It was ranked in the 9th position in the United Kingdom the week it was released. As of Lebanon, the film gained the first place in the box office for more than a month.
It grossed US$667,000 in Lebanon alone which is impressive and indicative of the country’s willingness to get behind its cultural output.

West Beyrouth apparently cost around US$800,000 and managed US box office figures of US$343,000.

Nadine Labaki in Caramel

ouds and grass-roots in abu dhabi.

shehab — Sun, 11 May 2008 20:08:39 +0000

Sana Munasifi touches on a great point in her recent review of the Fifth Annual Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Festival. She highlights the recently opened Abu Dhabi branch of the Arabian Oud House as an example of the type of grass-roots, ground-up, regionally relevant and contextual initiative (= investment) that may ultimately produce results (= returns) with more significant impact than those from grand Saadiyat like projects.
The way I see it, why not do both if you have the means to? And I imagine Abu Dhabi has the means to do almost anything it wants.
I sensed an outcry amongst the Dubai cultural movers and shakers when Saadiyat was launched which I always found astonsihing. For years the standard art-opening conversations included rants on the regional governments’ lack of investment and interest in the Arts & Culture industry. Yet when Abu Dhabi announces the biggest Arts & Culture project undertaken in modern times, there is a backlash about the way the money is being spent (trophy-museums, blatant tourism projects, unoriginal etc). As someone who has been active on a grass-roots level in the burgeoning regional culture scenes I have always believed that the most interesting movements and developments emerge through individuals and small groups and that these ground-up movements would benefit from a larger cultural eco-system which the mega projects planned in Abu Dhabi and Doha and Dubai will undoubtedly provide.

Naseer Shamma –
Back to Sana’s article, she raves about a new find for me: Iraqi Oud player Naseer Shamma:

“Mr Shamma broke with oud convention with his work “Oriental Orchestra”. This performance at the festival saw 67 international musicians playing 15 ouds, ten kanoons (similar to the harpsichord) and nine nays (a kind of flute), with drums, tambourines and other instruments. The concert included solos and call-and-response phrases between Mr Shamma and different instrumental groups, but most songs featured the full orchestra. The multitude of minor tones created a clangy, dissonant sound, which was, as Mr Shamma admitted, shocking in its unorthodoxy. But the jingle of the orchestra injected his compositions with new, lively personality. It was a welcome change from the regional classics performed throughout much of the rest of the festival.”

And she makes lots of great observations- my favorite:
“The festival, like much in the Emirates, was rife with status symbols. Seating sections included VIP, VVIP and Pearl and Diamond seating (I’m still unsure which was more elite).”

I am a real believer in Abu Dhabi, I think it (along with Doha) will be a fascinating global city in a few decades. Mohamed Bin Zayed and Hamad Bin Khalifa are currently the Middle East’s most interesting leaders.

MBAs, Media & the Middle East. » Music

musical zeroes.

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The Day Pop Died?

Motown is 50.

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alt.MiddleEast.

Creativeconomy – Ahmed Fahmy.

Bill Grueskin welcomes the incoming Columbia J-School class.

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MTV Arabia.

Film in Lebanon.

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ouds and grass-roots in abu dhabi.