Arabic Music And Its Appeal To Me And Others

When I first came to the states, I thought people would like Arabic music because I was crazy about it and how could they not like it? In my dorm room, I played a song for them as a party and I thought people were not as excited as I imagined them would be. They were like "OK?" A friend of mine dance to it, but not many. It was Diana Haddad's song Many Many, it was a hit in 2000. Then They started teaching us English with songs, and I remember liking country music becasue it was different and it was easy for me to understand.

Later, I would start learning that there are different kind of music...when I tell folks, Arabic music, they say what is it like? I would say I do not know. Then I learn different genres. Pop, Rock, Country and so on. But most songs I had with me then were pop music, which was simmilar to the pop American have, so that was one of the reasons people had little intrest in my Arabic music.
Later I would move out to Utah and go back to DC and learn that American like Arabic music, they go to concerts and such to see Arabic music. Only they liked classical music, the 40s, 50s and 60. I was a fan too but I was thinking Americans won't like such music it's too slow. I was wrong, that's the main reason why they like it it,s very different and the songs are very long. In fairness, when I taught Arabic in college here, my studenbts would chose Kathem Al Saher songs and learn the lyrcis becasue they are about poetry and orginal music. Amr Diab was popular too but only at parties.

American students like to dance to his beat----catchy, hip and dancey songs is all what he is good at. Average American students who do not speak Arabic would like his music, they can relate to it. I was happy that we would play Arabic songs. I recall Shakira earlier Spanish/ Arabic songs were popular as well.

My Spanish speaking classmmate appraoch me and ask me what the Arabic words in Ojos Asi mean...that was steretypical cool. Then Tamer Hosny, Nancy Ajram, Eliss And Hiafa start making pop songs and with that, more people who study Arabic or visit the Middle East tune in. Haifa became famous all over the world for her persona. Nancy made cute pop songs, Elissa was just a dreamy girl that Arab guys liked and thus, their American dates would listen to.