Nasser the Radio Star and Sound Icon in Arab Collective Memory

On November 14, 1954, Gamal Abdel Nasser became the president of the Republic of Egypt and the iconic leader of the Arab world. He was the first Arab leader to successfully capture the hearts and minds of Arabs across the colonial divide in the Middle East and North Africa. Much of this success is generally due to his nationalist ideology and mainly due to his charismatic character and his passionate voice. He became the anti-colonial voice and ‘radio star’ president of all Arabs. His hours long speeches broadcasted live over the radio across the Arab world. Hundreds of millions of Arabs attentively tuned to his speeches at homes, in cafés, in cars listening to him individually and in groups. His radio addresses became a cultural activity ingrained in the memory of Arab adults and children till present time. This paper examines the history of the sound culture created by Nasserism and its omnipresence in the collective memory of Arab minds. This sound culture is comprised of Nasser’s unique radio performance - his voice and delivery style, and of the Nasserist political song genre in Egypt and the Arab World.

Content

Author and article information

Contributors

Afif Arabi

Sahar Sharara

Conference

Publication date: August 2019

Publication date (Print): August 2019

Pages: 86-90

Affiliations

[0001]Lebanese International University

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/RESOUND19.14

SO-VID: e619a028-b9fd-4218-be64-aa73eb88a536

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: RE:SOUND 2019 – 8th International Conference on Media Art, Science, and Technology

Conference acronym: RE:SOUND 2019

Conference number: 8

Conference location: Aalborg, Denmark

Conference date: August 20-23, 2019

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: Media Art, Science, and Technology

History

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1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/RESOUND19.14

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

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E. Rogan 2011 The Arabs: A history Basic Books NY
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Comments

Comment on this article

[1] T. Agus 2010 Characteristics of human voice processing IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS) Paris, France May 2010 509 512

[2] F. Ajami 1979 The end of pan-Arabism Foreign Affairs 57 2 355 373

[3] A. Alahmed 2011 Voice of the Arabs radio: Its effects and political power during the Nasser era (1953-1967) The Joint Journalism Historians Conference ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="http://ssrn.com/abstract=2047212">http://ssrn.com/abstract=2047212 May 31 2019

[4] P. B. Dasgupta 2017 Detection and analysis of human emotions through voice and speech pattern processing International Journal of Computer Trends and Technology (IJCTT) 52 1 1 3

[5] A. Dawisha 2009 Arab nationalism in the twentieth century: From triumph to despair Princeton University Press Princeton

[6] J. De Bildt 2016 The use of facebook for examining collective memory Lucy BondStef CrapsPieter Vermeulen (eds), Memory unbound: Tracing the dynamics of memory studies Berghahn Books NY 133 148

[7] N. J. N. Diong 2015 Sawt al-Arab or sawt alNasser ? The case of mass media under Gamal Abdel Nasser and the convoluted rise of pan-Arabism Journal of Georgetown University Qatar Middle Eastern Studies Student Association 2015 5 ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5339/messa.2015.5">http://dx.doi.org/10.5339/messa.2015.5 7 July 2019

[8] A. El-Tonsi 2018 The legacy of Nasserism Ahramonline Monday 15 Jan 2018 ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/288198.aspx">http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/288198.aspx 5 August 2019

[9] M. A. Frishkopf 2010 Music and media in the Arab world The American University in Cairo Press Cairo

[10] J. Gordon 2006 Nasser: hero of the Arab nation Oneworld Publications Oxford

[11] J. Hale 1975 Radio power: Propaganda and international broadcasting Temple University Press Philadelphia

[12] S. A. HannaG. H. Gardner 1969 Arab socialism, [al-IshtirakTyah al -ArabTyah]: A documentary survey University of Utah Press Salt Lake City

[13] A. Hourani 1991 A history of the Arab peoples Faber & Faber London

[14] J. P. Jankowski 2001 Nasser’s Egypt, Arab nationalism, and the United Arab Republic Lynne Rienner Publishers Boulder, CO

[15] E. Karsh 2006 Arab imperialism: The tragedy of the Middle East Mideast Security and Policy Studies 69 1 34

[16] M. Kerr 1971 The Arab cold war: Gamal ‘Abd alNasir and his rivals 1958 1970 Oxford University Press Oxford

[17] L. Lomax 1974 A stylistic analysis of speaking Language in Society 6 15 36

[18] E. Rogan 2011 The Arabs: A history Basic Books NY

[19] W. A. Rugh 2004 Arab Mass Media: Newspapers, Radio, and Television in Arab Politics Praeger Westport, CT

[20] C. Searle 2001 And his name is Nasser: cricket and the Suez crisis Race & Class 43 1 59 69

[21] G. L. Trager 1958 Paralanguage: A first approximation Studies in Linguistics 13 1 12

[22] M. Uwaydah 1971 An examination of some structural and rhetorical features in certain speeches of Gamal Abdel Nasser MA thesis American University of Beirut

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