Music and the Marketplace of Desire

Abstract

This article discusses the phenomenon of aghānī al-khalāʿah (licentious songs), a musical style that emerged in abundance at the turn of the twentieth century and challenged prevailing social and religious norms, particularly through explicit sexual content. Critiquing the national musical historiography that marginalized this style as a fleeting moral deviation and a direct colonial byproduct, the research argues that aghānī al-khalāʿah served as a central medium of negotiation during Egypt’s accelerated transition toward modernity. It deconstructs the phenomenon as a complex structural and cultural formation, as well as an embodiment of a transitional ‘structure of feeling’ shaping the cultural scene’s musical concepts. This scene crystallized at the intersection of the erotic-sexual heritage of Arabic song, British colonial economic structures, the Orientalist imaginary, sonic recording technology and musical cinema. These dynamics became entangled with the agency of local subjects as they negotiated gender transformations within the prevailing patriarchal paradigm.