Mike Giglio reports on the fluctuating face of popular culture in Egypt:
Once the revolution took hold, everyone from poets to punk rockers flocked to the cause. Egyptian graffiti gained global fame, and museums put together showcases of revolutionary art. The most popular song of the protest movement came from a struggling acoustic guitarist named Ramy Essam. He wrote the compilation of popular chants and some improvised lines in a few minutes from inside Tahrir. Banning Eyre, the music journalist who runs the radio series Afropop Worldwide, says the time was ripe for what he calls "people power" music. …
[But even] that initial burst of "people power" creativity has seemed to dry up. "I think there is a break in revolutionary art," he says.
In fact, Ted Swedenburg, an anthropologist at the University of Arkansas who specializes in Egyptian popular culture, notes that some of the most enduring works from the revolution have been blasts from the past, such as remakes of old songs. (When pressed on why he wasn’t working on a script about the revolution, Lenin El-Ramly, the legendary screenwriter and playwright, banged his fist on his coffee table. "Because I have already written it!" he said.)
The natural choice for singer of the revolution was Mohamed Mounir, who’s known as the Voice of Egypt. He has long pushed a dissident sound, and his song "Ezay," which compares Egypt to a beautiful woman, became the mainstream counterpart to Essam’s acoustic riff. But Mounir made the song in the fall of 2010.
A music video for "Ezay" seen above.
The Dish 