Cairo Pop Youth Music in Contemporary Egypt

"Ignored by scholars and disdained by the local intelligentsia as fluff, Egyptian pop (shababiyya) videos are streamed nonstop on local satellite television and loved by millions throughout the Middle East. Daniel J. Gilman's is the first serious scholarly account of Egyptian pop, and it is a tour de force. Based on interviews with Cairo fans, he manages to convince us of shababiyya's significance, explain its position in the music hierarchy, and explain why young listeners so appreciate its 'sincerity' and its modernity. An essential read." -Ted Swedenburg, University of Arkansas

"An erudite examination of the interplay among pop culture, society and national identity."-George de Stefano, Pop Matters

"Gilman succeeds in taking on a huge task, parsing out at an exceptional level the relationships found between a variety of musical styles and their fan bases. Indeed, by querying "What is Egyptian music?" he is in truth raising a far greater question, namely: "What is Egypt?" (p. 127)."-Middle East Media and Book Reviews Online

"This book's timeliness and relevance to contemporary Egyptian social and political forces make it an essential read for anthropologists, folklorists, and ethnomusicologists interested in the contemporary Middle East."-Ethnomusicology