The Increasing Popularity of Mahraganat Songs in Egypt

The Increasing Popularity of Mahraganat Songs in Egypt
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The Increasing Popularity of Mahraganat Songs in Egypt
Mahraganat is a relatively new music genre in Egypt with strange lyrics from Western and Arabic music. The genre is characterized by its unique style of rap and advocacy for slum dwellers. Most of the videos of the genre have been shot in slum areas. The main themes of the genre include addressing social issues like crime and political issues like corruption. Although the genre has become popular across the world, especially in slum areas, it has sparked a negative perception from university students from rich neighborhoods.
Their contribution of Mahraganat to society has led to songs being considered a way of globalizing a popular culture (Back, Bennett, Edles, Gibson, Inglis, Jacobs, & Woodward, 2014). However, researchers show that songs also have such negative impacts as promoting negative stereotypes about certain cultures or women, and thus encouraging racial profiling and violence. The perception is common among university students from rich neighborhoods, who associate the genre with slum areas and social vices like crime (Hurriez, 2013). Therefore, the issue has attracted attention from researchers.
Researchers have sought to determine factors that influence the audiences’ towards Mahraganat, leading to the variables being explained from such different perspectives as level of education, social class, economic status, gender, age, mood, personal characteristics, ideology, place, religion, society, community, race, lifestyle, and political orientation (Carlton, 2014).
Two of the common theories used in such research are the cultural capital theory by Pierre Bourdieu and the cultural omnivore theory by Richard Peterson (Harris & Sanborn, 2014). They are used in this study since it will focus on social class and level of education, as...