Editing Raï (section)

===Post-independence===
[[File:Rachid_et_Fethi.jpg|thumb|239x239px|Rachid & Fethi]]
In the 1960s, [[Bellamou Messaoud]] and [[Belkacem Bouteldja]] began their career, and they changed the raï sound, eventually gaining mainstream acceptance in [[Algeria]] by 1964. In the 1970s, recording technology began growing more advanced, and more imported genres had Algerian interest as well, especially Jamaican [[reggae]] with performers like [[Bob Marley]]. Over the following decades, raï increasingly assimilated the sounds of the diverse musical styles that surfaced in Algeria. During the 1970s, raï artists brought in influences from other countries such as [[Egypt]], Europe, and the Americas. Trumpets, the electric guitar, synthesizers, and drum machines were specific instruments that were put into  music. This marked the beginning of pop raï, which was performed by a later generation which adopted the title of Cheb (male) or Chaba (female), meaning "young," to distinguish themselves from the older musicians who continued to perform in the original style.<ref name="Joan, Gross p. 7">Joan, Gross p. 7</ref> Among the most prominent performers of the new raï were Chaba Fadela, Cheb Hamid,<ref>[https://www.allmusic.com/artist/cheb-hamid-mn0000105474/credits Cheb Hamid All music] Retrieved January 20, 2021</ref> and [[Cheb Mami]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=July 3, 2009 |title=Cheb Mami sentenced to five years in forced abortion case |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/5734107/Cheb-Mami-sentenced-to-five-years-in-forced-abortion-case.html |url-access=subscription |access-date=April 26, 2020 |website=[[The Daily Telegraph]] }}</ref> However, by the time the first international raï festival was held in Algeria in 1985, Cheb Khaled had become virtually synonymous with the genre.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cheb Khaled for Citizens of the World Equus World |url=http://www.equus-world.com/en/citizens-of-the-world/the-artists/cheb-khaled.html |access-date=January 11, 2021 |website=www.equus-world.com |archive-date=May 17, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210517130526/http://www.equus-world.com/en/citizens-of-the-world/the-artists/cheb-khaled.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> More festivals followed in Algeria and abroad, and raï became a popular and prominent new genre in the emergent world-music market. International success of the genre had begun as early as 1976 with the rise to prominence of producer [[Rachid Baba Ahmed]].
[[File:Raïna_Raï.jpg|left|thumb|Raïna Raï]]
The added expense of producing [[gramophone record|LPs]] as well as the technical aspects imposed on the medium by the music led to the genre being released almost exclusively onto cassette by the early 1980s, with a great deal of music having no LP counterpart at all and a very limited exposure on CD.

While this form of raï increased cassette sales, its association with mixed dancing, an obscene act according to orthodox Islamic views, led to government-backed suppression. However, this suppression was overturned due to raï's growing popularity in France, where it was strongly demanded by the Maghrebi Arab community. This popularity in France was increased as a result of the upsurge of Franco-Arab struggles against racism. This led to a following of a white audience that was sympathetic to the antiracist struggle.<ref name="a4" />

After the election of president [[Chadli Bendjedid]] in 1979, Raï music had a chance to rebuild because of his lessened moral and economic restraints. Shortly afterwards, Raï started to form into pop-raï, with the use of instruments such as electrical synthesizers, guitars, and drum machines.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://moodle.brandeis.edu/file.php/3404/pdfs/gross_etal-arab_noise.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=March 21, 2008 |archive-date=October 31, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081031082125/https://moodle.brandeis.edu/file.php/3404/pdfs/gross_etal-arab_noise.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="autogenerated2">{{Cite web |last=Lee |first=Atsuhiro |date=15 January 2002 |title=Raï - Rebel Music from Algeria |url=http://www.jeddy.org/borderless/rai/ |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120210204650/http://www.jeddy.org/borderless/rai/ |archive-date=10 February 2012}}</ref>

In the 1980s, raï began its period of peak popularity. Previously, the Algerian government had opposed raï because of its sexually and culturally risqué topics, such as alcohol and consumerism, two subjects that were taboo to the traditional Islamic culture.

[[File:Raï_(Algérie).jpg|thumb|220x220px|[[Cheb Mami]], [[Khaled (musician)|Cheb Khaled]], Cheb Hamid and [[Cheb Sahraoui]]]]
The government eventually attempted to ban raï, banning the importation of blank cassettes and confiscating the passports of raï musicians. This was done to prevent raï from not only spreading throughout the country, but to prevent it from spreading internationally and from coming in or out of Algeria. Though this limited the professional sales of raï, the music increased in popularity through the illicit sale and exchange of tapes. In 1985, Algerian Colonel Snoussi joined with French minister of culture Jack Lang to convince the Algerian state to accept raï.<ref>{{Cite journal| first1= David| last1=McMurray| first2 =Ted| last2= Swedenberg | title= "Raï Tide Rising" Middle East Report| journal=Middle East Report| issue=169| pages=39–42| publisher= 39–42| year= 1992| jstor=3012952}}</ref> He succeeded in getting the government to return passports to raï musicians and to allow raï to be recorded and performed in Algeria, with government sponsorship, claiming it as a part of Algerian cultural heritage. This not only allowed the Algerian government to financially gain from producing and releasing raï, but it allowed them to monitor the music and prevent the publication of "unclean" music and dance and still use it to benefit the Algerian State's image in the national world.<ref name="Skilbeck">{{cite web |author=Skilbeck |first=Rod |date=22 September 1995 |title=Mixing Pop and Politics: The Role of Raï in Algerian Political Discourse |url=http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/rai.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170614051839/http://collectiondevelopment.library.cornell.edu/mideast/rai.htm |archive-date=14 Jun 2017 |access-date=March 18, 2008}}</ref> In 1985, the first state-sanctioned raï festival was held in Algeria, and a festival was also held in January 1986 in with Cheb Khaled, Cheb Saharaoui, Chebba Fadela, Cheb Hamid, Cheb Mami and the group Raï NaraÏ in the theater MC93 of [[Bobigny]], France.

In 1988, Algerian students and youth flooded the streets to protest state-sponsored violence, the high cost of staple foods, and to support the Peoples' Algerian Army.<ref>Meghelli, Samir. "Interview with Youcef (Intik)." In Tha Global Cipha: Hip Hop Culture and Consciousness, ed. by James G. Spady, H. Samy Alim, and Samir Meghelli. 656-67. Philadelphia: Black History Museum Publishers, 2006.</ref> President Chadli Bendjedid, who held power from 1979 to 1992, and his FLN cronies blamed raï for the massive uprising that left 500 civilians dead in October 1988. Most raï singers denied the allegation, including Cheb Sahraoui, who said there was no connection between raï and the October rebellion. Yet raï's reputation as protest music stuck because the demonstrators adopted [[Khaled (musician)|Khaled's]] song "El Harba Wayn" ("To Flee, But Where?") to aid their protesting.

In the 1990s, censorship ruled raï musicians. One exiled raï singer, [[Cheb Hasni]], accepted an offer to return to Algeria and perform at a stadium in 1994. Hasni's fame and controversial songs led to him receiving [[death threat]]s from [[Islamic fundamentalist]] extremists. On September 29, 1994, he was the first raï musician to be [[murdered]], outside his parents' home in the Gambetta district of [[Oran]], reportedly because he let girls kiss him on the cheek during a televised concert. His death came amid other violent actions against North African performers. A few days before his death, the [[Kabylie|Kabyle]] singer [[Lounès Matoub]] was abducted by the [[Armed Islamic Group|GIA]]. The following year, on February 15, 1995, Raï producer [[Ahmad Baba Rachid|Rachid Baba-Ahmed]] was assassinated in Oran.

The escalating tension of the Islamist anti-raï campaign caused raï musicians such as [[Chab Mami]] and [[Chaba Fadela]] to relocate from Algeria to France. Moving to France was a way to sustain the music's existence.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=980DE5D6113DF935A35751C0A9649C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all | work=The New York Times | title=Arabic-Speaking Pop Stars Spread the Joy | first=Jon | last=Pareles | date=February 6, 2002 | access-date=May 22, 2010}}</ref> France was where Algerians had moved during the post-colonial era to find work, and where musicians had a greater opportunity to oppose the government without censorship.<ref name="Skilbeck"/>

Though raï found mainstream acceptance in Algeria, Islamic fundamentalists still protested the genre, saying that it was still too liberal and too contrasting to traditional Islamic values. The fundamentalists claimed that the musical genre still promoted sexuality, alcohol and Western consumer culture, but critics of the fundamentalist viewpoint stated that fundamentalists and raï musicians were ultimately seeking converts from the same population, the youth, who often had to choose where they belonged between the two cultures. Despite the governmental support, a split remained between those citizens belonging to strict Islam and those patronizing the raï scene.<ref>{{cite web| author=Angelica Maria DeAngelis| url=http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/summary_0199-2375373_ITM| title= Rai, Islam and Masculinity in Maghrebi Transnational Identity| access-date=March 18, 2008}}</ref>