Israeli Music Today

[Dick Rosenberg <drosenberg...>]

I just spent the past while browsing through some new audio samples of
Israeli music on the Tara web site. I have to admit I was pretty
disappointed. I know that some references have been made on this list to
the differences between Israeli music pre around the 80s and from the
80s on, but I wasn't really prepared for the magnitude of the
differences. It seems like the Israeli "stars" have taken everything
that's banal and schlocky about modern "American" pop music (overuse of
synthisized effects, e.g.) and incorporated it into their music, while
discarding everything that (to me as an American Jew) denotes
"Jewishness" or "Israeliness".

I obviously have a bias toward the music of the Chalutzim and their
successors (we play a number of Naomi Shemer tunes in my band), and I
obviously realize that I as a kid threw away the music of my parents and
embraced Rock and Roll (back when it was good in the early-mid 50's :-),
but I find it difficult to see this music as Jewish. There must be a
difference between Jewish music and music sung in Hebrew by pop singers
who are Israeli.

Comments? 

Dick Rosenberg

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