Meaningful pop music
She must be listening to Ehud Banai.
Geez, I didn’t know that Jews can keep a tune. : )
The music here is RICH!!! Because it’s not only about beautiful melodies, interesting rhythms and funky instruments. It’s actually about meaningful words as well.
Hadag Nachas – הדג נחש
Hadag Nachash is an example of an Israeli hip hop-funk group that sings about… believe it or not… meaningful topics. OK, not everything is exactly that meaningful but a lot of their music is about things like life’s difficulties and Israel’s culture (including politics). Here is a song about the word freiyer. This is loosely translated as sucker. It’s the person who gets the raw side of the deal and in Israel people are often worried they’re going to be the freiyer.
Galgalatz radio – גלגלצ
The station that many people in the country seem to listen to is Galgalatz (you will hear it in many, if not most stores and restaurants throughout the country). They play music almost 24 hours a day plus news every hour on the hour (of course – we’re in Israel where we do that) and traffic reports (where they keep screaming at everyone to drive safely, FOR GOODNESS SAKE!!!). Galgalatz plays the craziest mix of English, Hebrew and other language songs and all styles (it’s normal to hear Louise Armstrong, Britney Spears and then Israeli rap).
On the list of most important things to do while in Israel, add, “Get to know the music.” It’s totally worth it to attain an Israeli music guru. Someone that can show you the ropes of the large and exciting variety of Hebrew music. When you come to Israel to visit, live here temporarily or you brave it and get yourself a spanking new teudat zeihut (Israeli ID card), just don’t miss out on this important aspect of the Israeli experience. Because you would be missing out.
Excellent article – so interesting to hear what people are listening to now. When I was first there on kibbutz as a “Mitnadev” in 1978 we listened to Abie Nathan and The Voice of Peace – “From somewhere in the Mediterranean”. He had a boat anchored off Cyprus somewhere and sailed around…what a life! It was a hippy kind of thing to do, listen to alternate music instead of the quasi-government stations. Milking cows at 4:30 am in the Revet and hearing Bob Marley and Steely Dan was a great way to start the day!
Yonny, thanks so much for your comment! I think I heard about that guy. So interesting!