Middle East

Of all the genres blanketed by the World music label, Middle Eastern music undoubtedly sounds the most foreign to Western ears. While Pop music, including jazz, rock, R&B, and rap, is categorically rooted in African rhythms, Middle Eastern music, while not without its own sense of rhythm, is primarily and richly melodic. Its painstakingly intricate melodies utilize a system of scales based on notes that are not found on a piano keyboard. Where Western music's smallest pitch shift is the half step, Middle Eastern tonal structures feature intervals over four times as acute. Musicians from the region use these complexities to craft incredibly detailed aural textures that make European harmonies seem crudely simplistic. Traditionally, Middle Eastern music has been limited by strictly-enforced boundaries due to its deeply religious nature; however, artists like Israel's Ofra Haza and Lebanon-born Ali Jihad Racy have taken its elegance beyond Mosque walls as they fuse elements of Western and African music with those of their native Middle East.