Arabic Alternative

The region’s indie and art-pop scene: bands and songwriters working in Arabic, outside the mainstream music industry.

Arabic Alternative is as much a scene as a sound. It came together through the 2000s around Beirut and Cairo, when affordable recording equipment and the internet removed the two things an Arabic-language band had always needed and rarely had: a studio budget and a label willing to bet on a record that was not pop.

What it sounds like varies widely, and that is the point. Rock, electronic production, tarab phrasing and spoken word all turn up, held together by the decision to write in Arabic for a regional audience rather than in English for an export one.

The term is used carefully here. It means the scene, not “anything that is not pop”. Guitar bands are under Rock, self-released work of any style is under Indie, and the further-out end is under Experimental.