What we can’t imagine, others will.
Here is a speculative list of the kinds of contributions that we hope and imagine will come together to make Muslim World Music Day.
Wayne State University in Detroit, home to one of the largest Muslim communities in the United States, sends 35 videos of older men singing songs they remember from childhood.
The British Library scans and uploads a collection of Fairuz publicity images.
MTV Arabia posts their top 100 videos.
A small library in Jamaica that received a donation of LPs from a Lebanese merchant sends scans of the covers for the Arabic titles to be translated.
A leading scholar of Egyptian music offers a short essay on Umm Kultum’s legacy.
Yusuf Islam performs live from London.
Endo in Japan is inspired to continue his groundbreaking work on African discographies and compiles the definitive list of Fuji (Nigerian Muslim Hausa music) recordings.
Acrassicauda, an Iraqi metal band, sends their lyrics to be translated into French, Spanish and English.
Unsigned artists and bands from eighty countries send self-produced MP3s of original music.
Scholars at the Aga Khan Music Initiative offers an essay on the relationship between natural sound and the development of vocal technique in Central Asian music.
Anouar Brahem provides a history, with accompaniment, of how l’oud became lute.
The Gulf State Folklore Center in Qutar shares interviews of Bedouin musicians.
Naeem Mohaiemen re-evaluates his treatise on the relationship between hip-hop and Islam.
WKCR, Columbia University’s radio station, runs a 24-hr Muslim Music Marathon.
The Internet Archive provides scans of historical music books.
Cité de la Musique in Paris, sends soundfiles and photos of their Islamic
Here is a speculative list of the kinds of contributions that we hope and imagine will come together to make Muslim World Music Day.