Raļ began in 1900 in western Algeria but came into its own in the harbour city Oran during the 1920s. Its basis was in Arabic love poetry and Bedouin folk music. Traditional rai had two styles; female meddahas who sang for other women at private gatherings, and the more ribald lyrics of the cheikhas (including Rimitti) who added more Bedouin rhythms and performed in cafes, bars, bordellos, accompanied by percussion and wailing "gasba" (rosewood flute). Oran's French colonial population in conjunction with its proximity to Morocco and Spain, added further to the cultural cocktail.

Modern raļ began in the 1950s and 60s. Male singers - cheikhs (lit. old, or, master) introduced violin and accordion. Most well-known was the heavily Western influenced Bellemou Messaoud who incorporated the trumpet, violin, lute from the other modernists, adding an 'call and response' echo effect infused with jazz, cha cha, and, mambo flavours. This rhythm and melody gave way in the late 1970s and early 1980s to the pop style of raļ pioneered by Ahmad Baba Rachid in Tlemcen. The pop-singers called themselves "Cheb" (young) to underline the break they were making from the self-contained, rich poetry of the cheikhs. Instrumentation consisted of; bass guitars, drum machines and the synthesiser, though the Western technology did not sacrifice the traditional sound at the altar of western rock. Traditional melodic structures were now "sandwiched between double percussion of Western drums and darbuka " in a quarter-tone scale - with denser, faster and more streamlined rhythms : accented rhythms may be "played at the speed of a camel loping somewhere in Jamaica with eastern tunes over a funk or dub backing" but inspiration comes from songs of the 1930s and 40's, berrah (criers) from Oran's Medina J'dida, and, suburban chants are mixed with bidhaoui (Casablancan electronic music).

The provocative nature of raļ lyrics is nothing new; and is to be expected. The literal translation of raļ is "opinion" (along with "my way", "tell it like it is!" and many other possible translations) Raļ is the symbol of a lifestyle of cynicism and anti-authoritarianism. Even the lyrics of 70+ year old Rimitti show this tendency:

"Oh my love, to gaze upon you is sin
It's you who makes me break my fast...
It's you who makes me 'eat' during Ramadan.", and,
"People adore God, I adore beer"

Lyrically raļ became akin to the blues, singing of alienation, poverty, drug and alcohol abuse, and, forbidden sexual desires. Hedonism,existentialism, suffering and total inaction became major structural elements. Criticism held that pop-rai artists had no understanding of folkpoetry and sang only of flesh and alcohol. Raļ emphasis on forbidden desires, relations and addictions "is a rejection of taboos in a society of traditions".

The hittiste are generally defined as urban poor, with no chance of employment, dependent on their families for shelter and food into theirmid-20s. This is koukra (the curse) of extended childhood. They waste their days walking with friends from cafe to cafe: vandalism, alcoholism and cannabis smoking are endemic amongst them. Having fun has become serious - the hedonism of the hittiste, "is an act of desperation... immediate gratification is grasped in default of some more distant collective solution".

At the crisis point of October 1988, when dissent violently emerged in bloody rioting, it was a raļ song - Khaled's "El Harba Wayn?" (To Flee, But Where?) which became the anthem of protesters;

"Where has youth gone?
Where are the brave ones?
The rich gorge themselves,
The poor work themselves to death,
The Islamic charlatans show their true face...
You can always cry or complain
Or escape...but where?"

Raļ quickly attracted attention from those in power and those wishing to be. Rai was thrust into the political sphere, despite (and partially) because of its contempt for authority.

Once Algero-French community radio shows in the south of France started playing raļ in the mid-80s the government's anti-rai programme was rendered pointless in all facets as Algerians tuned into the French broadcasts. Government opposition ended with Cheb Khaled's meteoric rise to fame. The best artists remained left for France, to seek fame and the freedom . Performers, such as Khaled, Cheb Mami, Cheba Fadela and Cheb Sahraoui moved to France to avoid variously, military service, and to launch international careers. In addition several raļ singers have resided in France since childhood.

Rai in the mid-80s became a very strong source of identity for the Algero-French community in a similar way to which the hittiste related to it. Rai's main political effect was felt in personal politics reflecting and affecting "the politics of the everyday": the relationships and the intuition that steers behaviour. Conversion to mass-production is one of the two methods identified by Dick Hebdige to diffuse the threat of a subculture. The other is the re-definition of cultural deviancy as trivial or animalist, hence Chirac (while he was Paris mayor) expressing "his sympathy for the decent French working people being driven 'understandably crazy' by the 'noise and smell' of foreigners".

THE END

"I would like you to add my name to the top of the article so people do not think my article is actually the word for word translation of Habib Tengour's article. Thanks." Rod Skilbeck

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