This is obviously inspired by Paul McCartney’s concert in Israel. I’ve often thought that he might be some kind of ambassador for peace in that region, but that’s only if the residual spirit of Beatlemania has some presence in the Muslim side as it does in he West.
It’s easy to see that most Islamic elders have consistently condemned the Beatles as the embodiment of Western cultural decadence, but there’s bound to have been a pop-culture underground among young people in the Muslim world who by now are not so young.
Because of this legacy, one would think that if any Westerner were remotely popular in the Muslim, it would be Sir Paul.
30+ year old Muslim here. Don’t hate the Beatles but never liked them enough to be considered a fan either. Have no opinions on Sir Paul except that I thought he was a fool to marry that woman with the one leg, whatshername.
I should have phrased that statement to be more speculative and with the caveat, “…to the extent that they reacted to them at all”. But given that the Beatles were such a global phenomenon, it seems doubful that Islamic elders in the Middle East:
[ul]
[li]Ignored them altogether[/li][li]Had a positive view toward them[/li][/ul]
The Beatles represented both a generation gap and a coming together of young people all over the world. They were, after all, instrumental in ending the Cold War and bringing down the Berlin Wall.
Cite: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAO-zSomKxQ&feature=related (skip ahead to about 5:45)
It’s a pity to think that these same positive feelings are unable to bridge the cultural divide that confronts us nowadays.
I can’t comment on the pop-culture underground in general but, regrettably you may think, McCartney and The Beatles don’t appear to have penetrated the musical consciousness of the terrorist sector of this movement.
Personally I would have tried We Can Work It Out.
If, as reported within, Sir Paul has little to fear in Tel Aviv, there are at least two singers who might want to think twice about visiting.
Thus speaks a man who bought The Immaculate Collection and didn’t like it.
I guess this is one of those questions that interests people who don’t really know the answer.
In such cases they will dance around the subject matter, sometimes offering a response that is peripheral to it. This keeps the thread alive, on the off chance someone will come along and make a more telling contribution. For example, I can tell you, again off topic but now anecdotally, that Pink Floyd are very popular among some students in Iran. Some of them apparently know the complete lyrics to Dark Side of the Moon. They are not ashamed to publicise their homage, either. So a liking for western rock or pop is (a) not unknown in Iran and (b) not a hanging offence if the authorities get to know about it.
It’s not much of a stretch to imagine an Iranian youth who were fans of the Beatles, especially since the height of their popularity coincided with Iranian rule by the pro-western Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi. I’d even guess the culture didn’t need to go underground. Maybe someone will come along to confirm or deny whether this was the case.
Maybe that someone will be none other than myself. I have an Iranian family as close neighbours and I intend to put this question to them at the earliest opportunity. This will be in a couple of weeks. The head of the family is about 70 so his input, or lack of it, will be revealing.
Naturally, your response above provides a distinct disincentive to report anything they tell me which I consider you may argue is not pertinent to your OP, however interesting such comments might be, and however informative they might be on a tangential basis.
> I should have phrased that statement to be more speculative and with the
> caveat, “…to the extent that they reacted to them at all”. But given that the
> Beatles were such a global phenomenon, it seems doubful that Islamic elders in
> the Middle East:
>
> Ignored them altogether
> Had a positive view toward them
>
> The Beatles represented both a generation gap and a coming together of
> young people all over the world. They were, after all, instrumental in ending the
> Cold War and bringing down the Berlin Wall.
That doesn’t remotely answer my question. All you’ve even suggested is that people in the “West” (i.e. most of Europe and North American and perhaps some of the Pacific Rim) were shook up by the Beatles. I already knew that. I was there at the time the Beatles first became popular. What does that have to do with the reception of the Beatles in the Islamic world? Do they even take any notice of them?
A thousand pardons. I thought I detected a soupçon of disapproval.
I’ll get back to you as promised. If my neighbour is a Rolling Stones fanatic, or better still a Deadhead, I’ll feel free to report this with unbridled enthusiasm.
Well he tells me, via email from Tehran, that the Beatles had an enormous impact on ‘a few Islamic countries’. I’m guessing these were the less hardline nations of that ilk at that time.
Specifically regarding Iran, the youth of the 1960s played and enjoyed the Beatles, and no ban was issued by the authorities on any kind of western music during this period. As I mentioned earlier, Iran was very much pro-western during the reign of the last Shāh so I’m not greatly surprised by his comments.
It would be interesting to hear from someone with knowledge of, say, Saudi Arabian youth culture 40-50 years ago to give us a handle on the impact of the Beatles in that type of political and religious environment.
