Riff Cohen

Muzika mizrahit (Israeli Mizrahi or Oriental music) is a modern Israeli popular genre rooted in the musical traditions of Jewish communities from the Middle East, North Africa, and the Mediterranean. It blends Arabic, Turkish, Greek (laïko/rebetiko), and Andalusian influences with Hebrew lyrics and contemporary pop production. Musically it favors modal melodies drawn from Middle Eastern maqam systems (e.g., Hijaz, Bayat, Kurd) and characteristic vocal ornamentation (melisma, microtonal inflections). Typical instruments include oud, bouzouki, qanun, violin, darbuka/tabla, riq, and handclaps, increasingly complemented by synthesizers, drum machines, and pop/EDM-style arrangements. Lyrically, songs often revolve around love, longing, family, faith, and place, moving between dance-forward party anthems and deeply emotive ballads. Since the 1990s, the style has moved from a marginalized “cassette culture” to the mainstream of Israeli pop.

Raï is a popular music genre from the port city of Oran (Wahran), Algeria, whose name comes from the colloquial Arabic word for "opinion" or "point of view." It began as a raw, vernacular form of urban song led by cheikhas (female singer-performers) accompanied by gasba flute and guellal drum, addressing everyday life, love, alcohol, social hypocrisy, and desire with unusual frankness. Across the 1970s and 1980s, raï electrified: acoustic ensembles and Bedoui/chaabi-rooted melodies merged with electric guitar, synthesizers, drum machines, and global dance grooves (funk, disco, reggae, and pop). This produced the internationally famous “pop raï” sound—at once danceable and emotionally direct—carried by stars such as Khaled, Cheb Mami, Cheb Hasni, and Cheikha Rimitti. Today, raï remains a living tradition and a flexible pop form, equally at home with traditional gasba/guellal timbres and glossy electronic production, while its lyrics continue to alternate between hedonistic celebration and aching nostalgia for home and lost love.