Since its heyday as the world's first advanced civilization some 5000, years ago, Egypt has provided a cultural and commercial bridge between sub-Saharan Africa and what is now the Arab world. Pharaohs, including the famed "black pharaohs" from the neighboring Kush empire, ruled Egypt until Greek-speaking Macedonians came in the 4th century BC. Many varieties of foreign domination followed, culminating in the Ottoman Empire, British colonialism and ultimately, nationalist rule under Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1952. Through all of that, Egypt has remained a hub of highly influential culture. Indeed, the story of North Africa's recording industry begins in Cairo, where the Odeon label started up in 1904, producing over 400 titles before World War I. Given Cairo's continuing dominance as a music center, a thumbnail sketch of northern Africa's modern music naturally starts there. In the grand halls of Cairo today, large firquah orchestras combine western and Middle Eastern classical instruments, playing music that carefully preserves and extends centuries-old traditions. The scales, or maqam, and forms used in this music, and the time-honored themes in the classical poetry that singers interpret--all exemplified in the works of singer and legend Oum Kalsoum--may seem rarefied upon first listen. But for Arabic-speaking peoples, deeply concerned with their history, both the music and the words resonate in ways that have no exact parallel in the western world. Meanwhile, in Cairo's modern recording studios, young pop singers and high-tech troubadours from the city's blue-collar neighborhoods pour their hearts out in plain-spoken, topical confession and complaint, especially the music styles known as shaabi and al jeel. After Egypt's demoralizing defeat by Israel in the 1967 war, new sounds developed in Cairo as young Egyptians sought ways to reaffirm themselves in a fast-paced, changing world. Internationally savvy, high-tech al jeel became the music of the educated, well-to-do youth. Meanwhile, in working-class neighborhoods, a brash new sound called shaabi, which means "of the people" bloomed into view. Shaabi has old, rural origins, but also refers to a modern urban musical style, often using western and electric instruments. Both Cairo's venerable traditions and its modern pop hold sway over musicians and audiences across the Maghreb, the region that stretches from Libya to the Atlantic, to include Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco--the country known to Arabs as Maghreb Al Aqsa, the extreme west--then south across the Sahara to the Senegal River.

Contributed by: Banning Eyre