Music as a Transnational Creative Practice

 Author: Michaela Howett

Music, as a creative practice, is as important as any in our considerations of transnationalism in the globalized world in which we live today. In The Local and Global in North African Popular Music, Tony Langlois discusses the variations of Rai music- which was originally produced in North Africa- produced as the genre has spread to other regions of the world, resulting in a more modernised version of a traditional creative practice and the political significance of these variations, particularly in Oran and Oujda. Langlois concludes The Local and the Global with the statement: “Whatever attractions ‘the modern’ might have had, ‘tradition’ is safer.” While this is very true in the face of the political turmoil which has gripped the regions from which Rai music was produced, one could argue that a more modern variation of Rai is one which is more natural in the face of the transnational world in which we live.  

The very name of the article Local to Global represents the way in which Rai music, like other creative practices, has been subject to the changing demands of today’s world. What started as a very traditional practice has now been altered to suit a global audience. Rai was first a local music, often performed at weddings and the like- low key events “where the singers could be outspoken and provocative”. Because of this, its wide-spread distribution is subject to political controversy. However, this freedom to voice local concerns, alongside the continued references to local places in traditional Rai makes it very intimately Orainaise.

This contrasts with the global variation of Rai music. Langlois points out that specific local references are unlikely “to stir the imagination of a Franco-Maghrebi youth in a housing estate in Lyon.” And it is for this reason that global Rai tends to have more generic lyrics. This is widely criticised as a loss of meaning by the Orainaise audience and is seen as a substantial departure from traditional Rai. When coupled with the more modern, synthesised musical sounds, it could be argued that the very essence of Rai music is lost when we consider the global variation. However, it might be more reasonable to argue that this is a very appropriate departure from traditional Rai. The Maghrebi who have emigrated have simultaneously managed to retain a traditional art form as well as impart their own experience of Maghrebi culture onto it. The modernised Rai can be seen to reflect a culture which has been influenced by a more global culture by expanding outwith the country of origin.

While it is appropriate for a much more traditional version of Rai to continue to exist in Oran itself, a modernised version of the music seems to more fit the demands of the global audience. However, Western and modern culture is seen as immoral in the eyes of many traditional Orainaise and there is furthermore the danger that the traditional Rai music, as it was intended, will be lost- constituting a loss of identity. But even on the local scene, Rai music was forced to change and de-politicise in order to escape the violence of the Islamic political groups, resulting in the creation of a music that, while more traditional than the global version of Rai, was viewed as a bland imitation. This idea of the potential music has to be a political art form and means of communication is expressed in Richard L. Derderian’s North Africans in Contemporary France: Becoming Visible. He mentions how, in postcolonial France, music, among other creative practices, “helped inform the French about the condition of foreign labourers” and “acted as an extension of a nascent immigrant workers’ movement”. It is therefore evident that even locally, Rai was losing some of its most traditionally important identity. In light of this, allowing a different form of Rai to evolve to suit a global audience seems relatively harmless, more fitting in today’s world and much less constrained than what local Rai eventually became. The real danger seems to lie in opting for a bland variation of the music, produced directly for the consumer, which conforms to the political situation. Although this is nonetheless “safer” than sticking to exactly what Rai once was, the formation of a global version of Rai is far more relevant in the modern world than a version which disregards what Rai originally was- outspoken and provocative.

Contrasting with the way in which Rai music has be de-politicized in order to conform in more dangerous times, Derderian describes how some North African’s living in France perform music in areas chosen to have the greatest possible political impact: “the kinds of urban spaces that were directly implicated in the problems of police injustice, racial violence, and substandard housing”. Overall, I think this proves that music has a real significance in our transnational world- both as a fundamental part of cultural identity and as a means of communicating political statements.