SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Jdid raï (lit. ‘new opinion’) is a popular music genre of the Maghreb region primarily listened to by the Algerian and Maghrebi youth. It is the latest incarnation of raï, the well-known popular music style of Algeria. Though raï received much international attention throughout the 1990s, jdid raï has not received any coverage in the international press or in academic scholarship. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Algeria in 2019 and 2020 and adopting ethnographic, historical, and musical perspectives, from the positionality of a Franco Algerian, this thesis provides a unique account of jdid raï musicking practices in Algeria and considers the role and place of the music within the current Algerian society with a particular focus on issues of identity, power relations and mediation. Jdid raï in Algeria, it is argued, plays a central role for musicians and the youth in the construction and negotiation of identities and the navigation of a complex network of cultural, societal, economic, and gender relations. Through a use of musical transcriptions, the study first documents both raï and jdid raï musical and sonic worlds and locates jdid raï vis-à-vis previous forms of raï and current global aesthetics. The study then analyses jdid raï as a music industry, delving into its economic circuit and its flows in an increasingly digitalised world. The final part of the study examines the production of the genre in the studio and the ways it is listened to by disenfranchised male youth and investigates the complex layers of social, economic, and political contexts in which jdid raï is produced and consumed. It further highlights the ways in which the genre informs us about hierarchies and social positions within Algerian society at large. Altogether, this thesis contributes to the study of the relationship between popular music, power dynamics, and identity formations, and to a broader understanding of Algerian music, arts, and culture