Raï and Politics Do Not Mix: Musical Resistance during the Algerian Civil War

This article examines the sociocultural and historical relevance of Raï, the “people’s music,” as a mode of resistance and an expression of grass-roots rebellion against government corruption, fundamentalist propaganda, and Islamist and state violence in the context of the Algerian Civil War (1992–99). During that period, a brutal and corrupt regime used the rise of Islamism, and the violence associated with fundamentalism, to curtail the civilian population’s calls for democratization and instill a climate of fear. Raï can be considered as a democratic expression of rebellion that provided an emotional outlet—a platform for the expression of individual desire.