Satellite TV & Islamic Pop Culture in Egypt

Abstract

With the proliferation of music video channels on pan-Arab satellite television in the past decade, new styles of religious-themed videos are appearing on these alternative outlets to state television broadcasting. The growth and popularity of this new genre of religious music videos, along with “clean” cinema and Islamic satellite television productions, reflects shifting discourses concerning the arts and entertainment within the Islamic Revival. This essay explores the appearance of these music videos within a particular cultural moment in the Arab world in which popular culture is increasingly the site of ethical-aesthetic interventions aimed at moral and social reform.