Kesher Talk

The spread of Jewish rock: Christian rock has a huge audience world wide. Now, Jewish rock is growing in Israel:

Jewish religious music has also undergone a process of renewal and development in the past 10 years, and religious rock groups are no longer an unusual sight. However, a comparison between Christian rock and religious rock in Israel will show that the differences between them are almost as great as the differences between the two religions, in both audience and content. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Hasidic and traditional Sephardi music dominated the religious music market in Israel. Only in the mid-'90s did rock and roll begin to penetrate religious circles.

The pioneer in this trend was Adi Ran, a Tel Aviv musician who became religiously observant, continued to maintain his unique style, combining fringe rock and rough humor, even after he became a Bratslav Hasid. He continued to appear at the Barbi club in Tel Aviv and attracted many religious and ultra-Orthodox fans.

Inspired by Ran, other musicians who became religiously observant also began to combine rock with their religious new world. One of the similarities between religious Jewish rock bands and the Christian ones is the attempt to obscure words and symbols having distinct religious significance in order to win popularity among secular audiences. This blurring is often reflected in ambiguous texts. The American group, Evanescence, for example, one of the most popular Christian rock groups in America, obfuscated the image of Jesus in the words of the song, "Bring It Back to Life," making it possible to interpret the meaning of the words as referring to Jesus or to a lover.

... Jewish rock also contains many cases of deliberate obfuscation. In one example, the "Bnei Yisrael" band wrote a song called "Redemption on the Way," which contains the words: "Sister, wake up / Don't give in to yourself / You are a princess, beloved / All your honor is inside / Redemption is on the way." The song could be addressed to the divine spirit or to a woman. The song is also indicative of a new phenomenon: In Jewish rock and roll, the words tend to be more personal rather than based on verses from the prayers and the Bible. Another important difference between Jewish and Christian rock is in the missionary intent behind the songs. Rock bands like Evanescence, Creed or POD tend to preach on the importance of Christian morality. Jewish rock groups, on the other hand, like Madregot [Stairs] or Bein Hashmashot [Twilight] hardly preach at all. These bands immerse themselves in spiritual content, touching extensively on New Age-ism, and even complete skeptics can feel comfortable with them.

... The Christian rock bands contain quite a few women. Especially remarkable is Amy Lee, the soloist of Evanescence with her velvet alto voice. On the other hand, due to the prohibition on hearing a woman singing, Jewish rock bands did not have a single female singer until recent years. Now there are a number of religious women musicians, and they typically appear only before female audiences (such as singer Neshama Carlebach and the women's bands, Tofaa [Phenomenon] and Neshot Hava [Women of Eve].) The exceptions are few; they are willing to appear before men such as the traditional musicians Shifra Peretz and Neta Hirsch of Bein Hashmashot.

posted by William @ 2/10/2004 08:27:21 AM