Mixtape: Folk Revolution & Moroccan Music of the 1970s
WORDS BY Ben Jones
Sitting at the intersection of Europe, the Middle East, and West Africa, Morocco is home to a rich variety of folk music traditions. Yet for much of the 20th century, thanks to French Orientalism and persistent class biases, these genres remained socially and commercially marginalized. In the 1970s however, new technologies, increased migration, and political activism combined to create a Golden Age for Moroccan popular music.
Emerging from the working class slums of Casablanca, the band Nass el Ghiwane modernized regional folk genres like Ayta and Gnawa for commercial recordings, and in the process launched a folk music revolution. Repurposing traditional malhun poetry into socially conscious protest music, and adopting the counterculture aesthetic of American hippies, Nass el Ghiwane made folk music look cool and inspired an entire generation of North African artists. The introduction of cassette tape technology by the end of the decade made recording and distributing music dramatically cheaper, allowing for a flourishing of local music scenes.
Some of the new groups, like the Marrakech band Jil Jilala, hewed closely to Nass el Ghiwane’s folk music formula. Others, like Lemchaheb (“The Comets”) injected a psychedelic groove to the genre via the electric mandolin. Taking cues from the Ghiwane’s championing of North African rhythms and dialects, Amazigh (sometimes known as Berber) artists began to use music to advance indigenous political causes. Using rock instruments like the keyboard and the electric guitar, Ousmane (“Lightning”) became the first band to record popular music in Tamazight, the indigenous language of North Africa. In Southern Morocco, Izenzaren (“The Sun Rays”) and Archach developed a banjo-heavy Soussi style. In the northern Rif region, bands like Tawattun (“The Forgotten Ones”) and later Ithran (“The Stars”) adapted elements of synth-y Algerian raï and bluesy Spanish flamenco into a distinct Amazigh style.
All of this foment in North African folk music shared the stage on Moroccan cabarets and airwaves with urban-based artists, like Fadoul, Vigon, and the Megri Brothers, who sang Western-style rock and funk music in Darija. This mixtape offers just a sampling of the many treasures of Moroccan music of the 1970s. For more, check out Tim Abdellah’s Moroccan Tape Stash blog as well as Amino Belyamani’s excellent Moroccan Tapes project.
About the author:
Ben Jones is a Phd candidate at Georgetown University, where he studies the history of social movements and popular music in the Maghreb. His work has appeared in the Journal of North African Studies, Tamazgha Studies Journal, and Afropop Worldwide. He served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco from 2018 to 2020, and currently hosts a radio show on WOWD Takoma Radio.
