The Early Records of Arabic Music

Episode 375
with Peter Laurencehosted by Maryam Patton, Abdul Latif and Shireen Hamza
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The rise of record labels and new recording technologies played an important role in the history of the Nahda (Arabic Renaissance). In Egypt and Lebanon, independent labels like Baidaphon competed with their American and European counterparts to record local singers and popular music styles in an effort to preserve Arab voices. For the first time, these singers could hear their voices played back at them, often with mixed reactions. Listen in as we explore an early twentieth-century soundscape made available thanks to a collection of over 600 Arabic 78rpm records in the Loeb Music Library at Harvard University.
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