Music and Positive Youth Development in Morocco
Figure 1. Audience of L'Boulevard 2018 (i.e. music festival in Casablanca)
A master thesis in International Development Written by Maha Rhannam
ID: 11598891
Under the supervision of Dr. Oliver Seibt Second reader: Dr. Olga Nieuwenhuijs
Graduate School of Social Sciences University of Amsterdam
Abstract
This thesis will be discussing the impact of music engagement on urban youth in Morocco, and more particularly the ways in which music contributes to the empowerment of this population. It will also explore its implications on development strategies in the country. Multiple studies have discussed the evolution of hip-hop in Morocco, however they have failed to encompass the impact of this genre (and other genres as well) on the urban youth of the country. For these purposes, this research aims at uncovering the imprints of music in this day and age on the Moroccan urban youth, both musicians and music aficionados, in the current political and social climates of Morocco. This research is based on an ethnographic study of music-related events (concerts, workshops and open mics) in Casablanca. In order to understand this population segment, qualitative interviews were conducted; all of which demonstrate to some extent the ways in which music empowered, individually or collectively, the aforementioned participants. It seems that music acts more as a “bandaid” for the Moroccan urban youth, as shall be presented throughout this research. Considering the inexistence of a functioning music industry in the country as well as a brittle educational system, this thesis calls for governmental strategies to re-evaluate the importance of arts within education, setting them at the forefront of development strategies in light of the development pathways this could open up for Morocco.
Acknowledgments
Attending this master program and conducting this particular thesis would not have been possible without the help of a particular person, my mother. I would thus like to thank her first and foremost for believing in me, believing in this particular research topic and all in all, allowing me to enroll in this master.
I would also want to thank all of the people who have helped me during my fieldwork. I want to extend my deepest gratitude to Soukaina Fadli and Omar Nadi for providing accommodation for me to stay in when in Casablanca. I would also like also thank Ali Bengelloun and Hamza Mdouari who acted as my research assistants during some of the events that I have attended. Considering the difficulties and uncertainties attached to the thesis writing process, I have at numerous times asked for the advice of some of my social sciences graduate colleagues whom I wish to thank. My sincerest thanks to Myriam Ait Malk, Fatima Zohra Bensaid, Yasmine Morchadi, Anouk Strandstra and Sara Senouci for their continuous help and advices.
Finally, I would like to thank Dr. Oliver Seibt who has provided me with guidance through the thesis elaboration phase as well as during my writing process.
TABLE OF CONTENT
ABSTRACT ... 2 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ... 3 LIST OF FIGURES ... 6 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ... 7 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ... 8CHAPTER 2: HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT ... 11
HISTORICAL AND SOCIO-POLITICAL CONTEXT OF MOROCCO ... 11
a) Brief overview ... 11
b) Political context and its connections to music ... 11
c) Social and cultural context ... 12
CASABLANCA: AN OVERVIEW ... 15
(URBAN)YOUTH IN MOROCCO ... 17
MUSIC IN MOROCCO ... 18
a) Overview of music genres in the country ... 18
b) Hip-hop in Morocco ... 19
c) Electronic music in Morocco ... 20
d) What now? ... 22
CHAPTER 3: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ... 24
EMPOWERMENT ... 24
i) Positive Youth Development ... 26
ii) Individual Empowerment ... 27
iii) Collective empowerment ... 28
iv) Potential risky attitudes within the framework ... 29
STUART HALL’S AUDIENCE RECEPTION THEORY ... 30
OPERATIONALIZATION OF MAJOR CONCEPTS ... 32
CHAPTER 4: METHODOLOGY ... 34
EPISTEMOLOGY &RESEARCH DESIGN ... 34
UNITS OF ANALYSIS ... 34
DATA COLLECTION METHODS ... 34
Interviews ... 35
Participant Observation ... 35
Document analysis ... 36
SAMPLING ... 36
DATA ANALYSIS ... 36
Critical discourse analysis ... 37
ETHICS AND LIMITATIONS ... 37
METHODOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS ... 38
CHAPTER 5: INDIVIDUAL EMPOWERMENT ... 41
SELF ESTEEM ... 41
a) Self-esteem of musicians ... 41
b) Self-esteem of the music aficionados ... 44
RESILIENCE ... 46
a) Resilience of musicians ... 46
b) Resilience of music aficionados ... 48
GROWTH ... 49
a) Growth of musicians ... 49
b) Growth of music aficionados ... 50
CHAPTER 6: COLLECTIVE EMPOWERMENT ... 54
SENSE OF BELONGING ... 54
SOCIAL CHANGE ... 57
POTENTIAL RISKY ATTITUDES WITHIN COLLECTIVE EMPOWERMENT ... 61
CHAPTER 7: DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS FOR POLICY WORK AND RESEARCH ... 62
DISCUSSION OF MAIN FINDINGS ... 62
LIMITS OF THIS STUDY ... 64
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH ... 64
POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS ... 65
BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 66
APPENDICES ... 73
APPENDIX 1.GLOSSARY ... 73
APPENDIX 2.MAP OF CULTURAL CENTERS AND LIVE PERFORMANCE VENUES IN CASABLANCA ... 74
List of Figures
Figure 1. Audience of L'Boulevard 2018 (i.e. music festival in Casablanca) ... 1
Figure 2. Touristic map of Casablanca ... 15
Figure 3. The slums of Anfa, the backdrop of Casablanca's most luxurious district ... 16
List of abbreviations
5C (or 6C) 5 (or 6) Competencies of Positive Youth Development
20FM 20th of February Movement
L’Amme L’association Marocaine de Musique Electronique (i.e. Moroccan Association of Electronic Music)
BMDA Bureau Marocain des Droits d’Auteur (i.e. Moroccan Copyrights Office)
ICT Information and Communication Technologies
MENA Middle East and North Africa
PYD Positive Youth Development
RSP Rabat Secret Parties
TAZ Temporary Autonomous Zone
UNDP United Nations Development Program
Chapter 1: Introduction
“Musical sounds are a powerful human resource, often at the heart of our most profound social occasions and experiences. People in societies around the world use music to create and express their emotional inner lives, to span the chasm between themselves and the divine, to woo lovers, to celebrate weddings, to sustain friendships and communities, to inspire mass political movements, and to help their babies fall asleep.1” “Barakkaa... men lkhouf, hzou riouskoum ya li mghareba hrarou ou baraka men lkhouf.2” (Stop… being scared, keep your heads up, Moroccans, become stronger, strive for freedom and stop being scared.) These first sentences of Don Bigg’s song Al Khouf (Fear), released in 2006 and centered on the economic and socio-political issues that Morocco has been experiencing in the last decades have inspired me as a young 11-years old Moroccan to not only be conscious of the socio-economic issues that my country was facing but they also inspired me to become an agent of social change. I have for most of my life lived in a bubble. I was raised by a Berber activist veterinarian father and an Arab biologist mother. I spoke mostly French and Berber, studied in a French school, then did my bachelor in an American-inspired liberal arts university in Morocco. I am now studying at the University of Amsterdam. In this context, I was secluded from the reality of other Moroccans for a while, and it was not until Don Bigg’s Al Khouf that I was clearly made aware of that. The booming, diverse and rich Moroccan music that ensued has strengthened not only my socio-political consciousness, but also inspired me to further investigate its power for other Moroccans, and more particularly its impact on Moroccan youth. Since 2006, the Moroccan music scene continued to stimulate and unite Moroccans on a national scale, either in football stadiums, spiritual sufi gatherings, political protests, festivals and other live performances. The music scene of the country has indeed grown, now including a myriad of different genres ranging from electronic music to rock, hip-hop and indie-pop, as well as rejuvenating its most traditional folkloric genres.
Despite the wide diversity of musical movements in Morocco, hip-hop was the only genre which has been apparent in academia (alongside historical accounts of folkloric genres such as
aita). Social sciences research has noted its evolution today as a popular global medium through
which the youth expressed critical messages, a role that was previously played by fusion groups such as Nass El Ghiwane in the mid-70s.3 Analysis of these new genres, and of the impact of music is in that sense essential, not only to investigate the cultural developments of one society, but also “to identify identity formation” as music is often a “public presentation of the deepest feelings and qualities that make a group unique.4”
Considering the post-Arab Spring Moroccan context, it is important to situate the echoes of the 20th of February Movement (revolutionary social movement in Morocco during the Arab
1 Thomas Turino, Music as Social Life the Politics of Participation (Chicago, IL: Univ. of Chicago Press, 2008), 1. 2 "Don Bigg – Al Khouf," Genius, January 01, 2006, accessed January 20, 2019,
https://genius.com/Don-bigg-al-khouf-lyrics.
3 Brian Seilstad, "Hip Hop Culture in a Small Moroccan City," Journal of Hip Hop Studies 2, no. 1 (Summer 2015):
76.
Spring) in today’s Moroccan society. Although the movement has faded into memory and new political orders have appeared since 2011, this movement had spurred hope for social change in the imaginary of the urban youth in the country, and as argued by a number of scholars, “the current situation where people dare to raise their voice is (now) irreversible5”.
In line with the rhetoric presented, and considering the impact of music worldwide and the particular context of Morocco, in the 13th of March 2018, the UNESCO bureau in Rabat (Morocco) has set to implement a project entitled ‘Music as a driver of sustainable development in Morocco’. This project draws on the “immense potential of cultural industries” in the country, and that in terms of “growth, employment, inclusion, and trade in goods and services.6” Despite the fact that this plan tackles and promotes an important and essential part of the sustainable development projects for the country, it still fails to include in more substantial terms the agency of the Moroccan youth. Indeed, this project only unfolds the economic aspects/potential of music in the country, and approaches this form of cultural expression solely through capitalist lenses, overlooking in that sense other forms of empowerment (both collective and individual).
For these purposes, this research investigates the role of music as an agent of social change, and investigates more particularly its role as a tool through which empowerment of urban youth can be possible. Despite the extensive research produced on hip hop in Morocco, the latter has failed to present a comprehensive view of the impact of music on urban youth as it attempted to explore the impact of this genre solely through a state-centric approach and/or linguistic approach (Seilstad7, Salois8, Almeida9 and so forth). In an attempt to fill this research gap, this thesis will present a bottom-up analysis on the evolution of Moroccan hip hop and electronic music as to investigate the use of music as an empowerment tool for urban youth. In order to examine this topic, I have chosen to focus on Casablanca, the economic center of the country and city which inspired Malca’s hit Casablanca Jungle10.
“Trying to find another shelter A revolution of our chains in love It’s so close that I can almost taste it.11”
Casablanca is a jungle, a jungle in which one might be fearful, might experience joy and all in all, a jungle where there is a diversity of opinions and experiences. However, as Malca describes it in his song (i.e. Casablanca Jungle), the urban youth of the country is nevertheless “trying to find another shelter”, one that can be potentially found through music. In order to investigate
5 Leni Brouwer and Edien Bartels, "Arab Spring in Morocco: Social Media and the 20 February Movement," Afrika
Focus 27, no. 2 (2014): 20.
6 "UNESCO Supports the Music Industry Sector in Morocco," Diversity of Cultural Expressions, March 14, 2018,
accessed October 30, 2018, https://en.unesco.org/creativity/news/unesco-supports-music-industry-sector-morocco.
7 Brian Seilstad, "Hip Hop Culture in a Small Moroccan City," Journal of Hip Hop Studies 2, no. 1 (Summer 2015). 8 Kendra Salois, "Make Some Noise, Drari: Embodied Listening and Counterpublic Formations in Moroccan Hip
Hop," Anthropological Quarterly 87, no. 4 (Fall 2014).
9 Cristina Moreno Almeida, "The Politics of Taqlidi Rap: Reimagining Moroccanness in the Era of Global Flows,"
The Journal of North African Studies 21, no. 1 (2015).
10 Malca is a Moroccan indie pop singer from Casablanca.
11 "Malca – Casablanca Jungle," Genius, October 27, 2017, accessed March 29, 2019,
the music scene and the role of music as it is experienced by the Casaoui (i.e. person from Casablanca) youth, I have conducted qualitative fieldwork in Casablanca from January to March 2019. This fieldwork that consisted in following up musical events in the city that were advertised on social media12 suggested that this ‘shelter’ resided mostly in hip-hop and electro music as it will further be outlined in this study.
For these purposes, the central question guiding my study will be: what roles do Moroccan Hip-Hop and Moroccan ‘Electro’ play in the empowerment of urban youth in Casablanca?
In order to thoroughly respond to the question, the following sub-questions will also be addressed:
i) What roles do Moroccan Hip-Hop and Moroccan ‘Electro’ play in the individual
empowerment of urban youth in Casablanca as defined by Travis and Deepak? ii) What roles do Moroccan Hip-Hop and Moroccan ‘Electro’ play in the collective
empowerment urban youth in Casablanca as defined by Travis and Deepak?
iii) To what extent do Moroccan Hip-Hop and Moroccan ‘Electro’ contribute to risky
attitudes and behaviors of the urban youth in Casablanca?
This thesis is divided into seven chapters, namely: (i) introduction; (ii) historical and cultural context; (iii) theoretical framework; (iv) methodology; (v) individual empowerment; (vi) collective empowerment and (vii) conclusion. As such, the following chapter will present an overview of the historical and cultural context of the country, discussing its political history, the evolution of musical genres within the Cherifian kingdom and the specificities characterizing Moroccan hip-hop and electronic music as genres in Morocco. The third chapter will then present the theoretical framework which will be utilized in the analysis of the findings. This chapter will present an overview of the literature on empowerment and empowerment via music as to introduce Travis and Deepak’s framework on empowerment, as well as Stuart Hall’s encoding and decoding approach. Chapter 4 will then outline the methodology of this research project, therefore presenting the epistemological approach used, data collection methods, units of analysis and ethical concerns. The next two chapters will then dive into the data collected in order to comprehend the role of music in the individual and collective empowerment of urban youth in Casablanca. Finally, the last chapter will present the conclusions of my findings, its limits and recommendations for future research endeavors and policy practice.
Chapter 2: Historical and Cultural Context Historical and socio-political context of Morocco
a) Brief overview
As previously mentioned, this research was conducted in Casablanca, the economic capital of Morocco. The latter is located in North Africa, a few kilometers south of the southern Spanish borders. Morocco counts now around 35 million individuals, with approximately 7 million of which live in Casablanca (2014)13. The country’s population is increasingly becoming urban, with an urbanization rate of 61.9%14. This parliamentary monarchy is headed by the King Mohammed VI, and is governed by the prime minister, Saâdeddine El Otmani, Secretary General of the PJD (Party of Justice and Development), a political party advocating for Islamism and an Islamic democracy. This party has become popular in the last few years, and more particularly after the Arab Spring movement, especially given the fact that the country is predominantly of Muslim faith (99%)15.
The human development index developed by the UNDP positioned Morocco at 123 out of the 189 countries surveyed.16 Despite the progresses shown by the country (increase of 45.5% from 1990 to 201717), this ranking puts into perspective the existing socio-economic disparities of the country which will further be explained throughout this chapter.
b) Political context and its connections to music
In order for one to understand the diversity of ethnicities, cultures, languages and mentalities of the country, it is important to examine the historical and political context in which they all emerged. For many centuries and under various dynasties, the territory of what constitutes today modern Morocco has been home to Arabs, Berbers and Sahrawi peoples of mostly polytheist, Muslim or Jewish confessions. Given its strategic geographical location, it has also represented a civilizations crossroads for Europeans and Africans alike. This history of diverse ethnic groups and religions living together and mixing has given rise to a rich and varied cultural and artistic life. Consequently, we can encounter Sephardic music and literature, derived by the Jewish people who have fled the Reconquista and sought home in Morocco, as well as Gnawa music, influenced by African folk, or again Berber folklore, drawing from pre-Islamic traditions.18
13 Anaïs Lefébure, "Casablanca, 5ème Ville La plus Densément Peuplée Du Monde," Al HuffPost Maghreb, May
29, 2017, accessed January 10, 2019, https://www.huffpostmaghreb.com/2017/05/29/casablanca-5e-ville-plus-densement-peuplee-monde_n_16865426.html.
14 Haut-Commissariat Au Plan, "Population Du Maroc Par Année Civile (en Milliers Et Au Milieu De L'année) Par
Milieu De Résidence : 1960 - 2050," Indices Statistiques | Site Institutionnel Du Haut-Commissariat Au Plan Du Royaume Du Maroc, , accessed January 06, 2019, https://www.hcp.ma/Population-du-Maroc-par-annee-civile-en-milliers-et-au-milieu-de-l-annee-par-milieu-de-residence-1960-2050_a677.html.
15 "The World Factbook: Morocco," Central Intelligence Agency , accessed January 12, 2019,
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/print_mo.html.
16 "Morocco," Human Development Reports, 2018, accessed August 12, 2019. 17 Ibid.
In 1912, Morocco became a French protectorate which ipso facto altered the cultural life of the country. Indeed, cultural life became more politically engaged in the decolonization struggle and the fight for independence.19 Hence, we can find several accounts of poems and songs tackling this issue, such as the ‘Chants du Tassaout’ from Mririda N'aït Attik20. After its independence, Morocco entered a dark period of authoritarianism and repression under King Hassan II’s rule, known as the years of lead.21 During these years, freedom of speech was severely restricted and journalists and political activists alike were imprisoned. In that sense, culture reflected this reality as we can find literary and musical works that narrate and condemn the severe oppression that society was subjected too (Saida Mnebhi, Nas el Ghiwane, Jil Jilala, Tazmamart cellule 10).22
The death of Hassan II symbolized the beginning of a new regime in Morocco, led by his son Mohammed VI. This regime was marked by national development strategies, a new code of family and persons enhancing the situation of Moroccan women, and all in all a liberation from the authoritarian boundaries of his father. Despite these liberal policies, the striking disparities of the country further widened amounting to a revolution in 2011.23
In the winter and spring of 2011, a wave of protests started in the MENA region, prompted by the socio-political inequalities of the countries of the region. Uprisings began in Tunisia and Egypt, Morocco amongst other countries quickly followed. In the 20th of February 2011 (F20) began a wave of protests in Morocco. The protesters were not a homogenous group, with participants from different backgrounds sharing a common goal. They advocated for social justice, equality, democracy and dignity. The youth in particular demanded freedom of speech and claimed their right for “a voice in the public debate, not just in Morocco but all over the world.24”
This vision was facilitated by the use of social media, allowing Moroccans to unite and discuss their ideals and aspirations. Indeed, social media played a significant role in the dissemination of information during the Arab Spring, social networks were in that sense essential “to get a broader access to the public25”. In this context, Casablanca also had its own group of activists, mobilizing people from their networks through social media.26
c) Social and cultural context
In common parlance, Morocco is described as a schizo(phrenic) country, or as it is stated by Réda Alalli and Hassan Hamdani, blad schizo. This expression, coined by the aforementioned
19 Ibid, 88.
20 Mostafa Oumkhoun, "Les Chants De La Tassaout : Un Périple Poétique Dans Le Temps Et L'espace," Amazigh
World, March 13, 2019, , accessed July 29, 2019,
http://www.amazighworld.org/history/index_show.php?id=642636.
21 Susan Gilson Miller, A History of Modern Morocco, 162-207. 22 Ibid, 223.
23 Ahmed Benchemsi, "Mohammed VI et Le Très Inquiétant Recul Des Droits De L'Homme Au Maroc ," L'Obs, July
31, 2019, accessed August 18, 2019, https://www.nouvelobs.com/monde/20190731.OBS16626/tribune-mohammed-vi-et-le-tres-inquietant-recul-des-droits-de-l-homme-au-maroc.html.
24 Leni Brouwer and Edien Bartels, "Arab Spring in Morocco: Social Media and the 20 February Movement," Afrika
Focus 27, no. 2 (2014): 19.
25 Ibid, 14. 26 Ibid, 17.
authors, refers to the identity glitches experienced by the country’s population, “caught between modernity and tradition, pretenses and lies, feigned morality and poorly adopted religion. Moroccans seek their identity27”. The schizophrenia of Moroccans is further defined as “a destruction of personality, a painful illness marked by profound anxieties and delusions. (…) At the basis of the malaise is of course the question of identity28”. This social malaise is significantly based on the “culture of appearance”. As a majoritarian Muslim country confused what is deemed as being (im)moral behavior (i.e. alcohol consumption, not fasting during the month of Ramadan, and having sexual intercourse outside of wedlock) of its citizens, Morocco still fails to embrace the transforming mentalities of its inhabitants.
In order to fully understand the schizo(phrenic) character of the country, it is important to comprehend its immense diversity in terms of ethnicities, cultures and languages, which was demonstrated in the political context section. Taking only language as an example, Morocco was originally a Berber country, subject to the Arab conquests in the XIIth century and European colonization in the XXth century. This context has permitted a sociolinguistic and cultural diversity with Moroccan Arabic (or darija) and Berber (or Amazigh) covering “the domains of home and street”, whilst Standard Arabic and French are adopted side by side in “education, public administration, and the media”. In addition, French is also used in science, technology and the private sector. 29 Despite the latter being widely used in the aforementioned domains, Morocco attempted to safeguard its cultural heritage, and more particularly, its Arab heritage through Arabization campaigns in the education sector as postcolonial reaction to the French protectorate power “which considered Arabic as a foreign language and denied it any place in education30”. The choice of Standard Arabic was paramount in this context, and subsequently favored the “revival of Muslim values and cultural identity31”, Amazigh on the other hand was completely dismissed and was only introduced as an official language in 2012.32 Despite the multilinguistic character of the Moroccan society, it should be noted that not all Moroccans are polylingual. The existing individual language proficiency differences are in that sense bound to create “language tensions or conflict” as it will further be apparent in the following chapters.33 The history and cultural makeup of the country have allowed for the development of dichotomous discourses: the first and predominant discourse preaching traditional and conservative values, and the second advocating modernity and progressive values.34
Tensions between modernity and tradition in blad schizo are also apparent in other domains relative to the main themes of this thesis, namely media and freedom of speech. As the use of Information and Communication Technologies will be essential throughout this research, it is important to note that Moroccans are predominantly using Internet, with approximately 86% of
27 Réda Allali and Hassan Hamdani, "Société. Blad Schizo.," TelQuel (2006), in Katja Žvan-Elliot, Modernizing
Patriarchy: The Politics of Womens Rights in Morocco (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2016), 54.
28 Ibid.
29 Muḥammad Al- Nājī, Multilingualism, Cultural Identity, and Education in Morocco (New York, NY: Springer,
2010), 185.
30 Ibid. 31 Ibid, 1.
32 Susan Gilson Miller, A History of Modern Morocco, xxi.
33 Muḥammad Al- Nājī, Multilingualism, Cultural Identity, and Education in Morocco, 2. 34 Ibid, 2.
the population using it on a daily basis.35 In the context of an authoritarian state, “media have become vitally important to young people”, with social media offering them “a virtual space to communicate and express their thoughts with like-minded people, and to have discussions without the control of their parents or the state.”36
Within the boundaries of an authoritarian state, censorship is also quite significant in the country, and freedom of expression is quite paradigmatic. Whilst the F20 protests have demonstrated that the youth could use social media to plan and organize a ‘revolution’, it is nevertheless prohibited to attack the “monarchy, religion and territorial integrity37”. A number of musicians have been indeed sentenced for their work and/or banned from mainstream media outlets, as they were criticizing rather controversial topics on either the monarchy, the government or societal matter. Mouad Belghouat (El Haqed, i.e the resentful) for instance was an active member of the F20 movement and was actively criticizing the inequalities and injustices in the country, all of which led him to be imprisoned for a number of months until his release in January 2012.38
35 Zakaria Oudrhiri, "Report Finds 19 Million Moroccans Go Online Everyday," Morocco World News, February
05, 2019, accessed August 1, 2019, https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2019/02/265099/report-moroccans-internet-morocco/.
36 Leni Brouwer and Edien Bartels, "Arab Spring in Morocco: Social Media and the 20 February Movement," Afrika
Focus 27, no. 2 (2014): 19.
37 Freedom of Expression in the Online Media in Morocco," International Institute for Nonviolent Action, ,
accessed July 29, 2019, https://novact.org/2017/09/llibertat-dexpressio-als-mitjans-online-a-marroc/?lang=en.
38 "Mouad Belghouat, Le Rappeur Marocain Qui a Choisi L'exil Pour éviter Le Suicide," Slate.fr, February 24, 2016,
Casablanca: an overview
Figure 2. Touristic map of Casablanca39
Casablanca (or Al-Dar-al-Bayda, i.e. white house) is a Moroccan metropolitan city located in the Central-West part of the country. The city gained popularity in the 20th century at the time of the protectorate as it became the principal port of Morocco. Casablanca was for this purpose subject to development projects throughout the century, becoming not only important for the French but also for the Moroccan independence movement as it soon became a center of resistance40.Since the independence of the country, the city further developed and established itself as the economic capital of the country, accounting for “more than half of the bank transactions and industrial production of the country41”.
Casablanca, the Moroccan metropolis, perfectly embodies the schizo(phrenic) character of the country. The socio-spatial transformations that the city has been undergoing through the last decades have created significant challenges for its inhabitants through a significant urban sprawl, contributing to the expansion of the city beyond its original boundaries. The
39 "Carte De Casablanca : Plan Touristique Casablanca," Cityzeum, , accessed July 31, 2019,
https://www.cityzeum.com/carte/casablanca.
40 Editors of Encyclopaedia Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Casablanca," Encyclopædia Britannica, accessed
July 21, 2019, https://www.britannica.com/place/Casablanca-Morocco.
development of new neighborhoods (El Oulfa, Sidi Maarouf, Ben Msik, Hay Mohammadi, Ain Sebaa, Sidi Bernoussi and Sidi Moumen) has in that sense contributed to the gentrification of the center (Maarif, Ain Diab, Anfa, Derb Omar, Gironde, Abdelmoumen and Racine) as one can see in appendix 2.
These transformations have also led to high population density, persistence of slums, heightened reliance on the ‘street economy’, impoverishment of public facilities, inadequate transport networks and so forth. 42 The increasingly socio-economic gap between the inhabitants of the city is visible to the naked eye, with the juxtaposition of villa areas and neighborhood of slums in Anfa, a luxurious neighborhood in Casablanca (see figure 3.) 43. A report issued in December 2017 further highlights these disparities, stating that close to 150,000 inhabitants were indigent and 450,000 citizens living in the city were living in precarious situations.44
Figure 3. The slums of Anfa, the backdrop of Casablanca's most luxurious district
This “urban jungle” transforms itself into a city of despair and violence for the most vulnerable communities, becoming in that sense ‘Casanegra’ (i.e. black house) as it has been “renamed by its large underclass and disenfranchised middle class45”. The exponential inequalities coupled with the increasingly high levels of violence, social exclusion and spatial segregation have turned Casablanca into a socially and spatially divided metropolis46.
42 Marie-Pierre Anglade, "Casablanca, « une Ville à L’envers ». Urbanités Métropolitaines Au Prisme De La
Marginalité Sociale Au Maroc," Les Cahiers D’EMAM, no. 28 (2016).
43 Iman Trari, "Les Bidonvilles D'Anfa, L'envers Du Décor De L'arrondissement Le plus Luxueux De Casablanca,"
Lavieeco, March 30, 2016, , accessed July 29, 2019, https://www.lavieeco.com/economie/les-bidonvilles-danfa-lenvers-du-decor-de-larrondissement-le-plus-luxueux-de-casablanca/.
44 Mohamed Younsi, "Inégalité Des Chances, Pauvreté, Chômage: Casablanca étouffe," Le360, December 12,
2017, , accessed July 29, 2019, http://fr.le360.ma/politique/inegalite-des-chances-pauvrete-chomage-casablanca-etouffe-147793.
45 Jamal Bahmad, "From Casablanca to Casanegra: Neoliberal Globalization and Disaffected Youth in Moroccan
Urban Cinema," Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication 6, no. 1 (2013): 16.
These lingering socio-economic disparities combined with the apparent and discursive dichotomy between modernity and traditions, further heightened by the metropolitan character of the city, have made it an intricate mess.
(Urban) Youth in Morocco
In Morocco, the youth aged between 15 and 34 years47 represents close to one third of the population (11 million out of 35 million – i.e. Moroccan population), and yet it appears that this significant segment of the population has been neglected in terms of education, employment and cultural instances. Indeed, “school dropouts affect two out of three young Moroccans, unemployment rate is around 20%, half of those who work are in low-wage jobs and 75% have no social security coverage in a country driven by favorable growth48”. These challenges, coupled with the lack of structures supporting and promoting civic participation of the Moroccan youth, all contribute to sentiments of isolation and frustration. Subsequently, these sentiments highly increase the exposition rate of this population segment to “delinquency, crime, extremism, to which is added a growing desire to leave the country in search of new opportunities abroad49”. The marginalization of this youth is also apparent in their feeble social participation, with close to 82% of this group neither practicing a physical nor cultural activity.50 Although only 60% of this age segment lives in cities, it appears that the rural vs. urban divide does not highly affect the living experiences of this group as these challenges are apparent in both rural or urban environments. This is not to say that Morocco has not contributed to the development of its youth, but rather that advances have been scarce. Initiatives however continue to be launched to reform both the educational system or the industries in order to promote employment.51 Nevertheless, the demands raised during the 20FM appear to not have been met despite the efforts of the government and civil society.
The dichotomous discourses of blad schizo are also prominently affecting the youth who are struggling to fit in between the traditions imposed by the older generations, society, and religion, and between the modern discourses inspired by the conjuncture of globalization allowing for the discovery of the other.
47 This age range was used to describe the youth of the country as the official national statistics consider
Moroccans aged between 15 and 34 as part of the youth of the country.
48 "La Jeunesse, Grande Oubliée De La Croissance Marocaine," Le Monde, August 10, 2018, , accessed July 2,
2019, https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2018/08/10/la-jeunesse-grande-oubliee-de-la-croissance-marocaine_5341269_3212.html.
49 Morocco, Conseil Economique, Social Et Environnemental, Une Nouvelle Initiative Nationale Intégrée Pour La
Jeunesse Marocaine, 2018, , accessed July 3, 2019,
http://www.ces.ma/Documents/PDF/Saisines/2018/S32-2018-Strategie-integree-des-jeunes/Rp-S23-vf.pdf.
50 La Jeunesse, Grande Oubliée De La Croissance Marocaine," Le Monde, August 10, 2018, , accessed July 2, 2019,
https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2018/08/10/la-jeunesse-grande-oubliee-de-la-croissance-marocaine_5341269_3212.html.
51 Souhail Nhaili, "Jeunesse Marocaine: Diagnostic Alarmant, Une Nouvelle Initiative Nationale Proposée Par Le
Conseil économique Et Social," Medias24, August 09, 2018, accessed August 18, 2019,
Music in Morocco
a) Overview of music genres in the country
Music has always been an important art form in Moroccan culture. For the purpose of this study, this section will focus on the evolution of contemporary popular music in the country. After the independence of Morocco in 1956, the country promoted songs which targeted specific symbols of the monarchy, namely Islam, Arabism and nationalism/patriotism. This repertoire was mainly inspired by folkloric Moroccan music traditions such as andalusi music, chaabi music and so forth. It is only starting from the 1970s that new musical genres emerged such as Moroccan fusion, inspired by the wide variety of international genres that were popular at the time (jazz, rock, blues, etc.). This new genre attempted to “creatively broaden and reimagine the boundaries of national Moroccan popular music52”, with artists such as Nass El Ghiwane, which are to this day considered as pillars of Moroccan contemporary culture. The music produced by artists such as Nass El Ghiwane was modern, as they were performing in darija and also basing “their repertoire on the musical instruments (i.e darbouka, ala and so forth) and music genres of a diversity of regions in the country.53”
Later, the start of the 21st century further marked the musical landscape of Morocco. The emergence of new genres like rap and metal revolutionized the youth of the country; these artistic changes that occurred at that time were labeled Nayda (i.e. ‘wake up’ or ‘stand up’). This cultural movement, often compared to the Spanish movida, was accompanied by reforms in the audio-visual sector with new private radios such as Hit Radio allowing for the visibility of the urban music scene, and new TV shows (e.g. Ajyal, Korsa, 100% Chabab – i.e. 100% youth) broadcasting hip-hop, rock and fusion artists. The latter also gained momentum during this period with new opportunities being launched through festivals to encourage music production. In that sense, festivals like l’Boulevard or Mawazine introduced contests for young artists to gain visibility and showcase their talents in these festivals.54 Moreover, with the development of ICTs, access to music was facilitated and thus widened through radios and online platforms such as YouTube, SoundCloud and Spotify55.
Despite the fact that music and musical expression has grown considerably in contemporary Morocco, the schizo(phrenic) character of the country and the dichotomous discourses of traditions and modernity still affect the musical landscape of the country. In 2003 for instance, a group of “14 Moroccan heavy metal singers were condemned to jail sentences for playing ‘satanic’ music56”. Other instances limiting the free expression of musicians (e.g. imprisonment of singer Silya Ziyani for participating in Rif protests57; arrest of Moroccan rapper Al
52 Cristina Moreno Almeida, "The Politics of Taqlidi Rap: Reimagining Moroccanness in the Era of Global Flows,"
The Journal of North African Studies 21, no. 1 (2015): 118.
53 Ibid, 118.
54 Dominique Caubet and Catherine Miller, "Du Rock Au Maroc Quelle Place Dans La Nouvelle Scène Urbaine
Casablancaise?" in Jeunesses Arabes. Du Maroc Au Yémen: Loisirs, Culture Et Politique, La Découverte (Paris: La Découverte, 2013), 331-332.
55 Abir El Adnani, "Spotify Arrive Au Maroc," H24info, November 14, 2018, , accessed July 29, 2019,
https://www.h24info.ma/culture/spotify-arrive-au-maroc/.
56 Merouan Mekouar, “Nayda: Morocco’s Musical Revolution,” Foreign Policy (Foreign Policy, August 27, 2010),
https://foreignpolicy.com/2010/08/27/nayda-moroccos-musical-revolution/.
57 "Morocco: Imprisoned Singer Released," Freemuse, September 29, 2017, , accessed July 29, 2019,
Mountaqim accused of incitation to violence and drug use58) still occur, although more sporadically. The practice of street music as another example is still regarded in some instances as provocative. In November 2018, two street musicians who were performing in the UN Square in Casablanca (a lively square in the center of the city) were arrested, risking up to five years in prison as they “were caught off guard when the wali (governor) of Casablanca, Abdelkebir Zahoud, decided to ban street art performances in the area.59”
The music industry is despite the increasingly important musical production, quasi-inexistent. Evidence of it can be found in the lack of available literature and media articles on the topic. It has been described as an industry immersed in the informal sector, “plunged into a lethargy contrasting with the extraordinary wealth of local creation60”. Indeed, the private sector of the country has yet to create record labels and production companies to accommodate its artists who heavily rely on auto-production. Additionally, the pervasive piracy present in the audiovisual industries in Morocco (which also represented the only way for the majority of Moroccans to access music) has been detrimental for record labels in the country (e.g. Platinium). Streaming platforms and live performances have become the only viable way for artists to earn a living. Indeed, whilst most artists around the world benefit from royalties for their music productions, Moroccan artists do not. The Moroccan Copyrights Office or Bureau Marocain des Droits d’Auteur (i.e. BMDA) has failed to accommodate its artists by not providing royalties for the registered musicians and singers, and not informing them on the necessary procedures to register within the BMDA.61
b) Hip-hop in Morocco
The arrival of the new millennium and the period of renouveau (i.e. revival in French) marked by the reign of Mohammed VI sparked a new beginning in the music sector for the youth of the country. Indeed, a “new generation of young and assertive performers was able to create a new space for musical expression62”. As music is highly interlinked in global currents, musical trends were soon to arrive and hip hop made its first appearance in Morocco in the late 1990s. The tradition of hip-hop that followed started mixing “traditional Moroccan composition techniques or forms and hip-hop beats” in what Cristina Moreno Almeida defines as taqlidi rap (i.e. traditional rap)63. Taqlidi rap appealed to the youth as it attempted to modernize Moroccan music. Groups such as Fnaïre and H-Kayne were in that sense working on remodeling Moroccan music, echoing the “hegemonic narratives of change and ‘modernity’” whilst bolstering Moroccan traditional narratives64. The aesthetics of this sub-genre suggest that the
58 "Morocco: Prosecuted Rapper Cleared of All Charges," Freemuse, December 15, 2015, accessed July 29, 2019,
https://freemuse.org/news/morocco-prosecuted-rapper-cleared-of-all-charges/.
59 "Moroccans Denounce Casablanca Ban on Street Performance at UN Square," Morocco World News,
November 19, 2018, accessed January 14, 2019,
https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2018/11/258132/moroccans-casablanca-ban-street-performance/.
60 "La Scène Rap Marocaine N'a Jamais été Aussi Bouillonnante," Konbini, September 4, 2018, , accessed July 29,
2019, https://www.konbini.com/fr/musique/rap-marocain/
61 Ibid.
62 Merouan Mekouar, “Nayda: Morocco’s Musical Revolution,” Foreign Policy (Foreign Policy, August 27, 2010),
https://foreignpolicy.com/2010/08/27/nayda-moroccos-musical-revolution/.
63 Cristina Moreno Almeida, "The Politics of Taqlidi Rap: Reimagining Moroccanness in the Era of Global Flows,"
The Journal of North African Studies 21, no. 1 (2015): 116.
postcolonial identity of the country continues to put the nation as its core and central constituent whilst shedding “light on the ongoing struggle to define contemporary Moroccanness65”. Other sub-genres of hip hop culture and rap have, as their precursors in the U.S., also strongly denounced the inequalities and injustices of the country with rappers like Muslim and Don Bigg. Muslim has for instance been calling for Moroccans to reclaim their country, “to have a voice and stop the aimless plundering of the country66”.
Despite being a generally frowned upon genre, hip hop culture and rap music in particular have in time been slowly integrated and accepted to some extent in Moroccan mainstream culture. In this day and age, as it will further be demonstrated in the following chapters, rap was either seen as “examples of co-option and commercialization on the one hand, or as part of the rebellious underground on the other67”. The artist which best exemplifies this dichotomy is Don Bigg or Al Khasser (i.e. the one who uses a crude language). As previously mentioned in the introduction, this rapper’s first album ‘Mgharba Tal Mout’ (Moroccans until Death) clearly denounced the “corruption, poverty, Islamism, ‘the years of lead’ in Morocco” which made him an underground success. Despite this fact, during the protests of the 20FM, he released the song ‘Ma Bghitch’ (I don’t want) which was critical of the protests. He (subsequently) received the royal ouissam, a military decoration bestowed by King Mohammed VI two years later in 201368. The archaic nature of the music industry in Morocco has made it such that the support of the
makhzen and monarchy can significantly improve an artist’s visibility and recognition in this
sector. 69The fear of co-option in this context is in that sense very present, especially as these two political powers are considered to be “patrons” supporting young rappers, whilst still absorbing counter-hegemonic discourses70.
c) Electronic music in Morocco
Interest for electronic music in Morocco sparked in the early 2000s, but it was not until the second decade of the century that a real electronic scene emerged in the country. The early days of this scene were marked by an interest for psy-trance and techno music which was brought in by either Moroccans living abroad or tourists throwing rave parties in the country. Electronic music was in that sense “very much underground71” with almost no clubs affiliated (only the Pacha in Skhirat, a beach village close to Rabat) with the genre nationwide. It was not until
65 Ibid, 116.
66 Cristina Moreno Almeida, "Unravelling Distinct Voices in Moroccan Rap: Evading Control, Weaving Solidarities,
and Building New Spaces for Self-expression," Journal of African Cultural Studies 25, no. 3 (2013): 326.
67 Ibid, 319.
68 Hadji Mamadou Gueye, "Décorations Royales Pour Le Rap Marocain : Ouissam Pour Bigg, H-Kayne, Fnaïre,
Komy," Français, August 22, 2013, , accessed July 18, 2019,
https://www.yabiladi.com/articles/details/19110/decorations-royales-pour-marocain-ouissam.html.
69 A more striking evidence of it can be found in the international and national recognition that Saad Lamjarred,
Moroccan pop star, has gained in the last few years. This singer has despite multiple rape allegations made against him in both the U.S. and France been able to walk freely thanks to Mohammed VI’s team of lawyers. His cooption by the system was in that sense favorable to him and his career both in Morocco and elsewhere, despite his criminal record.
70 Cristina Moreno Almeida, "Unravelling Distinct Voices in Moroccan Rap: Evading Control,” 327.
71 Sourdoreille, Electro Morocco - Explosion D'une Scène électronique Au Maroc (Oasis Festival 2016), October
Amine Akesbi (known as Amine K), the founder of Moroko Loko, launched in 2009 (alongside Unes and Mar1) his aforementioned project of underground parties celebrating electronic music and electronic music culture that this scene gained momentum in the country and started diversifying in other sub-genres (i.e. tech-house, house, minimalist and so forth).72
Moroko Loko was a counter-culture project, rejecting the predominant night-life codes of the country which was largely based on showing wealth and opulence through lavish and ostentatious possessions. The night-life of the country was, and still is, characterized by a ‘table-culture’ and a particular dress-code. In most clubs, it is customary not to stand on the dancefloor for the night, but to rather pay for a table with drinks, the cost of which is usually close to or higher than 1,000 MAD (close to 93 euros). Through this project, more and more events were organized on a regular basis, inviting local DJs and later on international DJs. The ambitions of the collective which founded this project was to present an “eclectic program” in which no proper attire is required with a relaxed atmosphere where “party-goers (are) totally uninhibited73”. In the documentary ‘Maroc Electronique – A Look at the Moroccan Electronic Scene’, Amine K describes Morko Loko as “just a place of freedom74”.
Musically speaking, the electronic music scene in Morocco is not subgenre specific. In other terms, when speaking of ‘Moroccan electro’, one refers to a variety of sub-genres, including tech-house, house, minimalist and techno as all of these sub-genres can generally be played in one evening in the same party/event. Differences however do exist between the predominant and widespread Moroccan electronic scene and the underground one (although one may argue that the electronic music scene is all considered as underground in the country). Indeed, this more ‘underground’ aspect scene has safeguarded the adepts’ interest for psy-trance and techno in either underground parties or raves which are only accessible to niche communities. Moreover, it should also be noted that the substantial majority of DJs in the country are not producing music themselves, but are rather mixing different songs and sounds. In that sense, the ‘Moroccan electro’ scene is more of a cultural musical movement rather than a genre, celebrating counter-hegemonic values and freedom on the ‘modern’ spectrum of blad schizo. This scene is however not made accessible for all Moroccans as it is still limited in terms of both entrance fee and bouncers’ decisions (which can be swayed by a corrupt hand in most cases). Indeed, most electro events falling under the same prism as the Moroko Loko events are quite expensive for the wider Moroccan youth with increasingly higher entrance fees depending on the city you are in (Marrakech being the most expensive, followed by Casablanca and Rabat), usually amounting to 200 MAD (close to 19 euros). In a context where the minimum wage is of 2,500 MAD (equivalent of 234 euros), entrance fees to these events is to be relativized75.
72 Ibid.
73 Meryem Saadi, "Phénomène. Soirées De Loko," TelQuel, December 05, 2012, , accessed July 21, 2019,
https://telquel.ma/2012/12/05/Phenomene-Soirees-de-Loko_547_5357.
74 Maroc Electronique - A Look at the Moroccan Electronic Scene, dir. Nada Allouch, Maroc Electronique - A Look
at the Moroccan Electronic Scene, December 17, 2017, accessed July 1, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5iasYGBd8A.
75 NSE Maroc, "Logiciel De Paie Maroc : Valeur Du SMIG Au 01 Janvier 2019," Logiciel De Paie (SMIG 2019 ) Maroc,
2019, accessed August 18, 2019, https://www.nse-ma.com/fr/logiciel-de-paie-maroc-valeur-du-smig-au-01-janvier-2019/.
Another important feature of this scene is the significant number of collectives working within it. Although a number of Moroccan DJs work independently (e.g. Yasmean, Chryzalid, Guedra Guedra, Maou), most DJs work within a collective. Generally, they are composed by a number of friends who wish to contribute to the electronic scene of their country by organizing underground electronic music events and increasing access to this genre and festivities nationwide (Apéros Electro, Plug-In Souls, Rabat Secret Parties etc.)76.
The electronic music scene has now boomed in Morocco, with notarial international DJs playing in the country every weekend, more and more parties organized throughout the year, clubs associated with the genre/scene in Rabat, Casablanca and Marrakech, sponsored and internationally renowned electronic music festivals (Oasis, Atlas Electronic, Moga and so forth), Moroccan DJs who have now gained international recognition (Amine K, Polyswitch, Casa Voyager, Kosh), and labels opening up to produce local and international DJs (e.g. Astrofever Records). However, despite the fact that a number of newspaper articles and documentaries have been examining the evolution of this scene in Morocco, academia and social sciences studies have not yet investigated this genre and the way it has altered the Moroccan culture and impacted Moroccan youth; all of which will be explored throughout this study.
d) What now?
Despite these conditions, a number of music-related events take place throughout the year (live performances in cultural centers or bars, jazz festivals, hip hop festivals, rock festivals and so forth), and a number of young artists continuously release new songs/tracks online as well as on other mediums. It is for these reasons that I chose to conduct my research in Casablanca, a dynamic urban center highlighting the socio-political issues of the country whilst underlining its cultural potential.
Yves Gonzalez-Quijano argued in an article questioning the positioning of Moroccan rap in the literature that the latter has put too much emphasis on the revolutionary and mobilizing potential of this musical genre in Morocco77. Indeed, as previously mentioned in the introduction chapter, literature on rap has approached this topic solely through a political perspective, overlooking the personal vécu of the artists and individuals, and the ways through which music (as either a professional endeavor or as product consumed) has impacted individuals and communities. This study will attempt through a thorough analysis of the different experiences of my respondents to investigate this impact whilst not approaching it solely through a state-centric perspective. Within the theoretical framework chosen for this research, it is also important to consider its linkages with the current Moroccan context. As argued by Yossef Ben-Meir, “more often it is precisely the lack of empowerment (…) that heightens political resistance, tension, and sectarian conflict and violence.78” For these purposes, Ben-Meir has called for national
76 Lucas Javelle, "Au Maroc, Les Jeunes Collectifs Et Labels Techno Bâtissent Une Nouvelle Culture De La Fête,"
Trax Magazine, October 06, 2017, , accessed July 21, 2019, http://fr.traxmag.com/article/43499-au-maroc-les-jeunes-collectifs-et-labels-techno-batissent-une-nouvelle-culture-de-la-fete.
77 Yves Gonzalez-Quijano, 2012. "Le Rap, Un Art De La Révolution Ou Une Révolution Dans L'art ?",
Hal.Archives-Ouvertes.Fr, Accessed May 15 2019. https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01279231, p. 1.
78 Yossef Ben-Meir, "Human Development in the Arab Spring: Morocco’s Efforts to Shape Its Global Future,"
governments to consider decentralization for development, as both a short and long-term strategy to meet the real needs of the citizens “while at the same time advancing social integration, national unity, and the development of grassroots political empowerment — all necessary conditions for governmental durability.79” Considering the monarch’s description of citizens as “the engine for and ultimate objective of all initiatives80”, this research aims at uncovering the means through which this engine can be started, and the role of music as a potential catalyst of this empowerment and change.
79 Ibid, 70.
80 King Mohammed VI, “Full text of the King’s Speech on the 10th Anniversary of Throne Day,” Maghreb Arab
Chapter 3: Theoretical Framework
This chapter will outline the concepts which will be used throughout this research, namely: Travis and Deepak’s empowerment framework embedded in the positive youth developmental approach, and Stuart Hall’s audience reception theory.
Empowerment
a) Overview of the concept of empowerment in the literature
Empowerment is a broad concept and construct that has widely been discussed in social sciences, academia and development practice, making its way through different social sciences domains, ranging from “social action, education and international development81”. This
concept is two-pronged, designating either an outcome (i.e. being empowered) or a process, which can be simultaneously or independently individual, collective, social and political. Despite the fact that the word emerged in the nineteenth century, it was not until the 1970s that the concept of empowerment started to be largely employed in academia and civil society circles. Over the decades in which it has been utilized, the concept changed and developed in different ways, with either an emphasis on social justice and human rights or rather on a more rationalized approach to economic opportunities.82
In an article discussing the evolution of the concept, Bacqué and Biewener present a typology of empowerment differentiating the different meanings allocated to the concept as threefold, namely: (i) the radical model; (ii) the (socio) liberal model and (iii) the neoliberal model. The radical model is based on a number of social change theories (e.g. Freire’s post-Marxist work in Pedagogy of the Oppressed advocating for education as a tool allowed the oppressed to be critical, empowered and liberated) in which empowerment recognizes the marginalization of certain groups and aims for their “individual and collective emancipation83”. Empowerment is
in that sense understood as a way to restructure the system through a bottom-up approach advocating for social change, equity and conscientization of the bedrock of inequalities. The liberal model is on the other hand taking into consideration the political and socio-economic context and attempts to work within it to defend individual freedoms whilst safeguarding social cohesion. This model integrates notions of “equality, good governance, fight against poverty and capacité de choix (i.e. ability to choose)84”. Finally, the neoliberal model is described as a
rational approach to empowerment disseminating the values of the market to social policy by putting forward the homo œconomicus. In other terms, this model preaches empowerment as the ability to “make rational decisions in a market context” and “having access to opportunities” whilst not questioning social inequalities.85
Multiple frameworks have in that sense been developed to address empowerment, with either a focus on the individual and/or the community86, a focus on economic capabilities and/or social
81 Marie-Hélène Bacqué and Carole Biewener, "Lempowerment, Un Nouveau Vocabulaire Pourparler De
Participation ?" Idées économiques Et Sociales 3, no. 173 (2013): 25.
82 Ibid, 25. 83 Ibid, 28. 84 Ibid, 29. 85 Ibid, 29.
86 Grace Spencer, "Empowerment, Young People and Health" (Doctoral thesis, Institute of Education (University
transformations and equity and so forth. Taking into consideration the myriad of models and definitions attributed to this concept, as well as the fact that this research will be examining empowerment via artistic endeavors, and more particularly through music, it is important to assess literature on empowerment via music in particular. The following section will thus attempt to present an overview of the literature on empowerment through music.
b) Empowerment via music
Examining the linkages between popular music and youth empowerment in Nigeria, Sunday-Kanu (2016) has uncovered the power held by pop music in the country, as it “ has not only functioned as a dominant factor for youth economic empowerment and reduction of unemployment but, has massively contributed in the building of national economy, political stability and overall socio-cultural well-being of Nigerian societies.” The researcher further argues for its promotion as an agent for “sustainable development of the nation Nigeria and her citizens.87” These linkages made by Sunday-Kanu contribute to the understanding of music as a tool for empowerment in a country, a hypothesis that has yet to be proven for Morocco.
c) Travis and Deepak’s empowerment framework embedded in the positive youth developmental approach
For the purpose of this study, I will be focusing on the process of empowerment rather than analyze the outcome of empowerment itself; and that through what would be defined by Bacqué and Biewener as the radical model88. Considering the fact that I am interested in approaching
this research through a bottom-up approach, one privileging the experiences of my interviewees as individuals and as a collective who suffer from political and socio-economic inequalities, I chose to use Travis and Deepak’s framework of empowerment which is embedded in the positive youth development approach which will be described in the next section.89 This
framework fits within the radical model of empowerment as it is inscribed in a bottom-up approach advocating for social change, equity and conscientization of the bedrock of inequalities. In the final chapter of this thesis, I will explore whether empowerment is indeed an outcome or non-outcome of music engagement or not, and will further discuss this concept in regard to the findings of my research.
Using Travis and Deepak’s framework for individual and community empowerment, as relative to their research on the impact of rap music on youth’s empowerment, one can understand the latter on both individual and community levels: the individual one focusing more on esteem (“feeling better”), resilience (“doing better”) and growth (“being better”) and the community one focusing more on the sense of belonging (“community”) and “change for better conditions90”. Empowerment can in that sense be analyzed as a fulfillment of necessary
conditions of individuals that will or could at least lead to social change by considering their impact and role in the broader social, political and economic systems. Travis links thus
87 Rita Adaobi Sunday-Kanu, "Exploring Pop Music in Nigeria for Sustainable Youth Empowerment and
Development: Uniport R’tune Music Show in Perpective," International Journal of Arts and Humanities 5, no. 2 (2016): 138.
88 Marie-Hélène Bacqué and Carole Biewener, "L’Empowerment, Un Nouveau Vocabulaire Pour Parler De
Participation ?" Idées économiques Et Sociales 3, no. 173 (2013): 28.
89 Raphael Travis, "Rap Music and the Empowerment of Today’s Youth: Evidence in Everyday Music Listening,
Music Therapy, and Commercial Rap Music," Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal 30, no. 2 (2012): 144.
empowerment with the development of a “sociopolitical awareness and social empathy at the individual level” that is believed to “pressure external systems that are blamed for unequal access to power and resources.91” Furthermore, Travis and Deepak also recognize the “risky
functions of rap music engagement”, arguing that each dimension comprises “a small sample of potential risky music engagement” as it will be outlined in this chapter.92
Despite the fact that this framework was only developed to examine the impact of hip-hop culture on empowerment, Travis and Deepak’s understanding of empowerment can also fit other musical genres, including electronic music (e.g. techno, house, drum’n’bass etc.). Indeed, as hip-hop music and culture was chosen due to the value attached to it as a medium of expression and ‘validation’, the use of other genres is also possible as long as they fulfill these criteria as it is the case in the context of my case study. Travis argues that the empowerment dimensions used within this framework are “salient for those that engage music in a casual everyday use93” allowing flexibility in terms of genres to be examined through this framework.
It should be noted however that given the fact that electronic music is in most general cases a non-lyrical genre, it will not be evaluated through the same lenses. Indeed, whilst rap transmits certain ideas and values through its lyrics, making it easier to analyze its transformative potential, electronic music in Morocco has more to do with the culture surrounding it, including counter-hegemonic values as it will further be demonstrated in the following chapters. This framework will also be evaluating two groups of individuals/collectives, the audience which attends events and listens to music, as well as the musicians (rappers and DJs) who produce the music and also consume it.
In order to conduct an in-depth analysis, the sections bellow will describe in a more thorough manner each of these dimensions of empowerment by giving a full description of the sub-dimensions of both individual and collective empowerment as previously outlined.
i) Positive Youth Development
Deepak and Travis have developed a framework enabling social workers to comprehend “competing messages within hip hop culture and how these messages may impact youths by promoting or inhibiting positive youth development94”. It is importance in that sense to
investigate this concept in regard to what will be further discussed throughout this study. This approach to youth development upholds that “development can be enhanced for all youth and that youths can be agents for improving their own development and society as whole in partnership with environmental assets95”. In today’s day and age, young people are facing
development challenges relative to “growing up in increasing fluid and heterogenous societies96”. Indeed, modern times now require for young people to navigate through diverse
lifeworlds, integrating the “cultural, religious, generational, digital – each with different codes,
91 Ibid, 144. 92 Ibid, 150. 93 Ibid, 162.
94 Raphael Travis and Anne Deepak, "Empowerment in Context: Lessons from Hip-Hop Culture for Social Work
Practice," Journal of Ethnic And Cultural Diversity in Social Work 20, no. 3 (2011): 204.
95 Ibid, 204.
96 Reed W. Larson and Steve P. Tran, "Invited Commentary: Positive Youth Development and Human Complexity,"
