Egyptian shaʿbi music is typically positioned as a somewhat vulgar style produced and consumed by the working-class masses. But in practice, numerous individuals have long been attempting to sanitise it to appeal to audiences deemed more elite. This article, based on 21 months of ethnographic fieldwork with musicians and producers in Cairo, investigates how this mainstream, mass-mediated, commercially successful version of shaʿbi, known as ‘clean shaʿbi’ ( shaʿbi nadif) is produced and distributed. I explore how three different cultural brokers try to clean up shaʿbi in distinctive ways. I argue that their success does not reveal a straightforward crossing of class-cultural divides, as it might at first appear; in each instance boundaries are in some ways crossed, and in other ways reinforced. Cleaning up shaʿbi does not necessarily benefit the musicians: the processes through which their music is sanitised and mediated are often exploitative, serving to entrench pre-existing social inequalities.

Sophie Frankford

Ethnography

A major new international journal successfully launched in 2000    Ethnography is a new international and interdisciplinary journal for the ethnographic study of social and cultural change. Bridging the chasm between sociology and anthropology, it is becoming the leading network for dialogical exchanges between monadic ethnographers and those from all disciplines involved and interested in ethnography and society. It seeks to promote embedded research that fuses close-up observation, rigorous theory and social critique.

Ethnography is a significant international journal that was successfully launched in 2000, focusing on the ethnographic study of social and cultural change. It bridges the gap between sociology and anthropology, becoming a leading platform for dialogical exchanges between monadic ethnographers and scholars from various disciplines interested in ethnography and society. The journal aims to promote embedded research that combines close observation, rigorous theory, and social critique.

《Ethnography》是一本自2000年成功推出的重要国际期刊，专注于社会和文化变迁的民族志研究。它弥合了社会学与人类学之间的鸿沟，正逐渐成为民族志研究者与各个学科之间进行对话交流的主要平台。期刊旨在促进嵌入式研究，融合细致观察、严谨理论与社会批判。

Category	Quartile
社会学	4
社会学, 人类学	4
社会学, 社会学	4

Cleaning up shaʿbi: Music and class-cultural divides in cairo

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