Thread: Difference between??

Hi there,
I have heard of Al Jeed. My understanding this is more modern, contemparary Egyptian and Arabic radio music?? Is that correct? What is the difference between Al Jeed and sha'abi?

Thank you for any info on this.

Al Jeel? It's generally smoother, less rough in sound and in lyrics than Sha'abi. Considered more 'high class' in general.

I think of Al Jeel as pop and Sha'abi as hip hop, but that's a really rough and not-well-thought-out comparison, having more to do with their places in society than with their sound, if that makes sense.

I believe "jeed" means "good." I haven't heard that term applied to music before, but it's certainly possible. I think what you are referring to is "al-jeel" or "al-geel" (Egyptian pronunciation), which translates as "the generation," meaning "the music of the younger generation." Within our context, "al-jeel" tends to refer to singers like Amro Diab, Hisham Abbas, Moustafa Amar, etc., all of whom are in their mid-40s now, and while still popular with young people, aren't exactly the teen heartthrobs they once were, now that they're as old as the teens' parents.

The confusion comes in because the term "sha'abi" in Arabic means "popular," but within the dance community it is used to refer to a specific type of popular music that is associated with a style of common-man, urban Cairene singing--which can be a far cry from the pop records those guys above are recording. Nevertheless, if you were speaking Arabic, each of those singers could definitely be considered "sha'abi" in the general sense of being very famous and liked, and also in the pejorative sense of being somewhat more lowbrow and unsophisticated than a singer of Umm Kalthoum's reputation. They do maintain the advantage of being more mainstream-respectable than singers like Saad al-Soghayer and Sha'aban abd al-Rahim--two famous and popular examples of the coarser street style of singing, and names that you are likely to find in the numerous Bhuz discussions of "what is sha'abi."