https://tankie.tube/videos/watch/2bc57fa0-7a98-4842-a986-df872b8214a8 The misnamed “Arab Spring” unleashed restrained aspirations of the region and like all uprisings saw an eruption of expression in songs, music, lyrics, spreading, much like these intifadas, through social media, massive crowds, and sharing ideas and trends across borders. But just as the initial optimism of the protests was crushed by the harsh reality of reactionary governments, western interventions, oligarchs and capitalism, so too was the new music of Arab youth co-opted, suppressed, corrupted and infiltrated by the West and the Gulf monarchies. Lebanese writer Mohamad-Ali Nayel has recently written a two part series that is the definitive examination of post Arab Spring hip-hop and popular music. He joined Rania Khalek to talk about this and much more. Moe’s articles discussed in the episode: Part 1: https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/44193/Music-Politics-After-the-Arab-Uprisings-Part-1 Part 2: https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/44194/Music-Politics-After-the-Arab-Uprisings-Part-2 Listen to every episode of Rania Khalek Dispatches anywhere you get podcasts. Apple: https://apple.co/3zeYpeW Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3za9DRK TIME CODES 0:00 Intro 1:17 Moe’s entrance into the Arab alternative music scene 5:43 Is it hip hop? Rap? Electronic music? 7:04 Music & politics during the Arab uprisings 12:50 Neoliberal orientalism’s view of the Arab rapper 17:33 Pan-Arabism through music 27:38 Breaking down the class divide 31:53 Impacts of failures , civil war, NGO-ization 37:54 Lebanon’s trash protests 43:51 Capitalism’s co-optation of subversive aesthetics 45:36 Exposing media lies about Syria 53:35 Arab militant music 55:41 Palestinian rap 59:44 Israel & Saudi Arabia pushing normalization through music? 1:07:10 Deterioration of the UK Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:14:49 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html PeerTube - https://tankie.tube https://tankie.tube/lazy-static/avatars/3ba3ff73-a8b6-49c9-add8-9653ef090c7f.webp https://tankie.tube/videos/watch/2bc57fa0-7a98-4842-a986-df872b8214a8 All rights reserved, unless otherwise specified in the terms specified at https://tankie.tube/about and potential licenses granted by each content's rightholder.