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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.
E-Book Content
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Popular Music and National Culture in Israel
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Popular Music and National Culture in Israel Motti Regev and Edwin Seroussi
University of California Press Berkeley
Los Angeles
London
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University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England © 2004 by the Regents of the University of California Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Regev, Motti. Popular music and national culture in Israel / Motti Regev and Edwin Seroussi. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and indexes. Discography: p. ISBN 0–520-23652-1 (cloth : alk. paper)—ISBN 0–520-23654-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Popular music—Israel—Social aspects. 2. Popular culture— Israel. 3. National characteristics, Israeli. I. Seroussi, Edwin. II. Title. ML3502.I75R44 2004 306.4’8423’095694—dc22
2003022856
Manufactured in the United States of America 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992 (R 1997) (Permanence of Paper).8
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Contents
Preface Introduction: Popular Music and National Culture
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Part I: Cultural and Institutional Contexts 1. A Short Introduction to Israeli Culture
15
2. Israeli Institutions of Popular Music
26
Part II: Popular Music and Nationalist Ideology 3. Shirei Eretz Yisrael (Songs of the Land of Israel)
49
4. “In Spite of It All, She Has Something”: Popular Songs in the Yishuv and Early Statehood
71
5. The Lehaqot Tzvayiot (Army Ensembles)
90
6. “And the Winner Is . . .”: Popular Song Festivals
113
Part III: Israeli Rock 7. The Invention of Israeli Rock
137
8. The Coming of Rock
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Part IV: Musiqa MizraHit 9. Musiqa Mizrahit: Origins, Style, Production, and Public 10. From “Neighborhood” to the Charts: Musiqa Mizrahit and Legitimacy Conclusion
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213 236
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Select Discography
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Works Cited
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Songs Index
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Albums Index
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Names Index
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Subje