Rachid Taha and the Postcolonial Presence in French Popular Music
This article considers the work of Rachid Taha from a postcolonial perspective. Taha is the most well-known French Algerian musician working in popular music in France and now has a considerable following in the anglophone world. The article is most concerned with the ways Taha's music expresse...
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| Format: | Journal Article |
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Intellect
2013
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/33998 |
| _version_ | 1848754101464072192 |
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| author | Stratton, Jon |
| author_facet | Stratton, Jon |
| author_sort | Stratton, Jon |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | This article considers the work of Rachid Taha from a postcolonial perspective. Taha is the most well-known French Algerian musician working in popular music in France and now has a considerable following in the anglophone world. The article is most concerned with the ways Taha's music expresses the experience of being identified as neither French nor Algerian while also feeling that both heritages are central to his identify as a Beur. The article focuses specifically on an understanding of Taha's work in terms of metissage, hybridity. Taha's first group was Carte de Sejour. Starting from a track on their first album, Rhorhomanie, which uses phrases from Arabic, French and English, the article goes on to examine examples of recordings where Taha has offered a revisioning of already well-know songs: Carte de Sejour's version of Charles Trenets 'Douce France'/'Sweet France', Taha's version of Dahmane el Harrchie's 'Ya Rayah' and, finally, Taha's version of the Clash's 'Rock the Casbah'. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T08:35:03Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-33998 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T08:35:03Z |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| publisher | Intellect |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-339982017-09-13T15:07:15Z Rachid Taha and the Postcolonial Presence in French Popular Music Stratton, Jon postcolonial Beurs hybridity Carte de Sejour Rachid Taha Algeria This article considers the work of Rachid Taha from a postcolonial perspective. Taha is the most well-known French Algerian musician working in popular music in France and now has a considerable following in the anglophone world. The article is most concerned with the ways Taha's music expresses the experience of being identified as neither French nor Algerian while also feeling that both heritages are central to his identify as a Beur. The article focuses specifically on an understanding of Taha's work in terms of metissage, hybridity. Taha's first group was Carte de Sejour. Starting from a track on their first album, Rhorhomanie, which uses phrases from Arabic, French and English, the article goes on to examine examples of recordings where Taha has offered a revisioning of already well-know songs: Carte de Sejour's version of Charles Trenets 'Douce France'/'Sweet France', Taha's version of Dahmane el Harrchie's 'Ya Rayah' and, finally, Taha's version of the Clash's 'Rock the Casbah'. 2013 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/33998 10.1386/pi.1.2.185_1 Intellect fulltext |
| spellingShingle | postcolonial Beurs hybridity Carte de Sejour Rachid Taha Algeria Stratton, Jon Rachid Taha and the Postcolonial Presence in French Popular Music |
| title | Rachid Taha and the Postcolonial Presence in French Popular Music |
| title_full | Rachid Taha and the Postcolonial Presence in French Popular Music |
| title_fullStr | Rachid Taha and the Postcolonial Presence in French Popular Music |
| title_full_unstemmed | Rachid Taha and the Postcolonial Presence in French Popular Music |
| title_short | Rachid Taha and the Postcolonial Presence in French Popular Music |
| title_sort | rachid taha and the postcolonial presence in french popular music |
| topic | postcolonial Beurs hybridity Carte de Sejour Rachid Taha Algeria |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/33998 |