Pop

Mainstream and alternative Arabic pop, sung in Arabic, French and English, across the region and its diaspora.

Cairo and Beirut built the modern Arabic pop industry, and the satellite television era of the 1990s and 2000s made pan-Arab stars out of singers who could fill a stadium in six countries. That machine still exists, but it is no longer the only route: streaming let artists release without a label’s approval, and the centre of gravity has drifted toward independent releases and toward Gulf and Egyptian production.

This archive holds both ends of that. It covers the polished, industry-backed pop that most people mean by the phrase, and the alternative and electronic pop made by artists who would once have needed a label and now do not.

Artists working further from the mainstream are more likely to be under Arabic Alternative or Indie.