Popular Protest Music and the 2011 Egyptian Revolution

Abstract

Music and performance have been at the heart of the ongoing Egyptian revolution since its outbreak on January 25, 2011. In this paper, we argue that popular protest music in particular has helped to shape and articulate emerging desires and aspirations as well as participating in criticisms and grievances at the site of political change. We aim to demonstrate, through the analysis of popular protest songs, how the 2011 Egyptian revolution has been imagined, articulated, and defined in popular culture. We trace the links between older revolutionary songs and how they have impacted new ones, while engaging with a number of theoretical issues on the role of popular music during periods of revolutionary struggles, in order to contextualize the domain of protest songs representing the Egyptian revolution. The last section of the article maps out a number of key popular music bands, musicians, and singers who have emerged and gained momentum as the “voice” of the 2011 revolution.

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