raï

Definition

A form of music, originating in Oran, Algeria from Bedouin shepherds.

Etymology

From French raï, from Algerian Arabic راي (rāy, “opinion”), from Arabic رَأْي (raʔy, “opinion”).

Example Sentences

• "Rai arrives in the US, in some ways, as the latest rage to hit the World Music record bins, the result of a new post-modern global marketing strategy."
• "1997: Karen Fog Olwig & Kirsten Hastrup, Siting Culture: The Shifting Anthropological Object — chapter 3: “Which world? On the diffusion of Algerian raï to the West” (by Marc Schade-Poulsen), p59: INTRODUCTION →ISBN (10); →ISBN (13))^† This chapter deals with raï music from Algeria. Since its emergence in the late 1970s, raï has spread throughout the world and stands today as an exponent of “World Music”. The chapter traces a transnational process that has taken place in the 1980s: the diffusion of raï from the cabarets of Oran (the second largest city of Algeria) to the stereo racks in the West. It evokes the existence of different places and spaces for the consumption of raï."
• "In France, raï’s lack of commercial success was thought to have been caused by hidden French racism and the subsequent de facto absence of raï on commercial radio and prime-time television. All in all, it did seem difficult to “sell an Arab” to a Western audience, as was the case, for example, with Cheb Mami’s U.S.-recorded album “Let me raï”, released during the Gulf War."