Mizrahi music

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Religious Jewish music *(main article)*
Jewish and Israeli Music (main article)
Sacred • Synagogal • Contemporary Piyyut • Nigun • Pizmonim Zemirot • Baqashot
Secular Jewish Music and Dance (main article)
Jewish or Israeli in Form: Israeli • Israeli folk Klezmer • Sephardic • Mizrahi
Not Jewish in Form: Classical • Mainstream and Jazz
Dance: Main article • Ballet • Israeli folk dancing Horah • Hava Nagila • Yemenite dance
Music for Holidays
Chanukah • Passover • Shabbat
Israel
Hatikvah • Yerushalayim Shel Zahav
Piyyutim
Adon Olam • Geshem • Lekhah Dodi Ma'oz Tzur • Yedid Nefesh • Yigdal
Music of the Haggadah
Ma Nishtanah • Dayenu Adir Hu • Chad Gadya

This article is about the music of the Mizrahi Jews. For the main article on secular Jewish music, see Secular Jewish music and dance.

Mizrahi music usually refers to the new wave of music in Israel which combines Israeli music with the flavor of Arabic and Mediterranean (especially Greek) music. The literal definition of Mizrahi in Hebrew is "Eastern" or "from the East."

Typical Mizrahi songs will have a dominant violin or string sound as well as Middle Eastern percussion elements. Mizrahi music is usually high pitched. The themes of Mizrahi pop songs are usually more simple than those of Israeli rock.

[edit] Emergence of Mizrahi music

In today's Israeli music scene, Mizrahi music is very popular. However, is populatiry is a somewhat recent phenomenon. Until the 1970s, the Israeli music industry was dominated by Ashkenazic music. Whilst the widespread discrimination of Jews of Mizrahi and Sephardi background had begun to die down by this time, the owners of record labels quite simply weren't interested in Mizrahi music. Instead they signed music to their personal taste: American- and European-style rock and pop music. Examples of this include Kaveret and Shlomo Artzi in the 1960s and 70s, and earlier on "pioneer", more idealistic folk-musicians such as Naomi Shemer and Yehoram Gaon.

One of the first widely popular Mizrahi musicians was Zohar Argov, who was from a development town and who had grown up singing in his synagogue, released his defining Mizrahi hit, Perach BeGani (פרח בגני) ("Flower in my Garden"). Women have also begun to play a significant part in popular Mizrahi music, with famous artists such as Sarit Hadad becoming more popular.