Nicely Said...
I came across this article by Ali Al-Saeed who is a famous blogger in the Bahraini blogosphere and this was an article in his column in the Gulf Daily News.. All I can say is amen to what you said, nicely put...
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=174216&Sn=COMM&IssueID=30005
Fuck all extremists and their dinosaurish mentalities...
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=174216&Sn=COMM&IssueID=30005
Facing the music over creativity...
By Ali Al Saeed
Rock music is the Devil's music. That's what I kept hearing as a teenager. I thought it was absurd back then and I still do now.
A couple of weeks ago, I was standing amidst hundreds of wild rock fans enjoying their favourite bands playing live in front of their eyes in Dubai.
I saw no devils around, only happy, smiley faces - including yours truly - having the time of their lives!
At the age of 16-17, I was your typical angry boy with an attitude problem - and I wanted to be in a band.
But, for any self-respecting Bahraini family, to hear their son wanting to play the devil's music, well, back then that was a big no-no, as you can imagine.
My cousin and I used to "smuggle" our guitars into our homes secretly, behind our parents' backs and try to practise as quietly as rock music can possibly be played.
I must admit though, we were terrible. But let's not go there.
We feared our parents' wrath if they were to find out about our newly discovered passion.
I, as a person, am one of those who honestly cannot live without music in their lives. My bedroom had posters of all shapes and sizes of rock stars and heavy-metal bands on every inch of its walls and I would spend my weekly savings on buying records of my favourite bands.
Even now, there is nothing like those moments when I sit at home and listen to the newest CD, fresh out of its plastic case.
We'd wait for the day that everyone in either of our households had gone out so that we could let our guard down and "jam" without having to worry about getting caught. We were often told that rock music would be the end of us, that it would lead us to alcohol and drugs and into a world of chaos.
As a child, that seemed to me as far-fetched as man landing on the sun. I knew that it existed, I wasn't that naïve, but I also knew that wasn't all there was to it.
People seem to have these myths about rock music and they cringe at the sight of an electric guitar.
Twelve years ago, it felt as if I was living that 40s/50s period when rock 'n' roll was witnessing its majestic birth in America.
What frightens people about the music is that it is daring, original and highly evocative. It is bound by no rules.
Rock music is arguably the most innovative, creative and musically satisfying genre of music out there - starting with the likes of Woody Guthrie, Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan, to Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Lynyrd Skynyrd, to today's Ryan Adams, Idlewild and Muse.
The transformation over the years of the music scene in general has always been led and influenced by such bands and musicians.
That is the reality of it. And I wish more people would see the benefits of musical creativity, rather than focusing on the negative myths they associate it with.
My parents didn't grasp it at the beginning, but now they see it as it is - another outlet for talent and creativity. If you disapprove of something, it doesn't mean that there is no value to it.
Fast-forward to the present and my 16-year-old brother sits upstairs in his room blasting the solo from Hotel California all through the afternoon.
He wants to be in a band.
Fuck all extremists and their dinosaurish mentalities...
posted by LiB Team at 11:15 AM
9 Comments:
Nice words Ali...
I was standing next to him at the Dubai Rock Fest... I poked him a few times and ran... but he was to moved by the show that he didnt care :P ... I even saw a tear in his eye...
Then I tried to steal his bag...
anon is back??!! someone shoot me please!!
as for the rock concerts=satanic rituals controversy, i think that it's nothing but a product of ignorance and stupidity. they made such a big deal when that ho nancy ajram came to bahrain, when a rock band looks at what happend with nancy, why would they even dream of playing in such a closed minded country?
Hell yeah!
love your site..keep these helarious blogs comming
wish you all the best
dear lib team, the topics that you address in your blog are important. however, there are much more shit going on in this country than we know of. for example are those right wing pro-government newspapers al-ayam and akhbar al-khaleej who have the sole purpose to feed people false information about this country, which means they only report about the positive and never about the negative. a good example is the BANDARGATE SCANDAL. it was a huge scandal that took place during the latest bahraini elections, so huge that even the new york times and the washington post reported it. now let me ask you: if it was this big of a scandal that even the new york times wrote an article about it than why havn't most bahrainis heard about it???!!!! becuase there was a huge cover up by the bahraini government, and the royal family. and local right wing newspapers would never even think about writing about the truth. a truth that will distroy the image that the government has in the minds of bahrainis.
another example is that prime minister that has been in office for almost 40 years. all the torture and human rights violations took place under his command, yet he holds his office to this day!
another topic is Antisemitism, children are born innocent until their fimillies teach them hate, hating someone they don't even know, to hate jews, it happend with me, my entire life people told that jews are the devil and i beleived them. until i became friends with a jewish guy when i was living in london, that's when i realised how much crap society feeds us. but lately ms. Huda Azra Nono became the president of the Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society. making her the first jewish woman to hold such office in bahrain, so at least we're making progress.
SO please, LIB TEAM, write about these important topics in the future. please let me know if you're going to write about this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandargate_scandal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torture_in_bahrain
One answer to you anon...
We are NOT going to write about such shit. We know about a lot of underground shit that happens, we know about bandargate, we know about the tortures, we know that some AKs can get away with murder *hint hint* the latest Shakhoori shooting? etc
For the zillionth time, we are a social blog, NOT a political blog. The government bashing part comes when it affects a social issue, not a political one.
Cheers...
thanx LIB team, next time i want talk about politics i'll visit a political blog. still i think it's important to spread awareness about these issues. since no one talks about it. keep up the good work.
speaking of the Shakhoori shooting, was the shooter an american? becuase if he is then there's no need for us to wait for him to be punished, becuase the closest thing that he will ever get to a punishment is a slap on the wrist. since the government is more worried about it's (relationship) with america than the life of mr.Shakhoori and his loved ones. LIB TEAM is 100% right about bahrainis bieng blond-hair, blue-eyes worshipers. i hope that i'm wrong. and that the family of Shakhoori will get justice. plz prey that allah will give his family justice and strength to get through this.
The problem is that it won't matter who did it. It might be an American, an AK or someone either from the police or military who are the only ones in Bahrain who can have guns.
Either way, it's a lost game and nothing will happen. But if justice does get served then I would be more than glad and happy that at least one good thing came out of Bahraini authorities.
Rock music .. where should i begin. I can't begin nor end, it is simply my muse!! I wish that people would concentrate on the lyrics and music instead of following all those little isolated incidents that lead them to think that it's the music of the devil.
Furthermore, i wonder how come music that has sex, fuck and drugs in almost every line of it is alright and Rock isn't!!
Post a Comment
<< Home