Page "Mizrahi music" Paragraph 2

After World War II, many Jewish families moved to the new state of Israel, created in 1948.

The Muzika Mizrahit movement started in the 1950s with homegrown performers in neighborhoods with a high concentration of Jews from Arab countries from the Middle East and North Africa who would play at weddings and other events.

They performed songs in Hebrew, but in an Arab ancient Middle Eastern style, on traditional Arabic instruments — the oud, kanun, and the darbuka.

In the 1960s, they added acoustic and electric guitar to their sound and so their sound became more eclectic.

Vocalists usually decorated their singing with trills, and delivery was often nasal or guttural in sound.

Intonation was typically Western, however ; singers did not use the quartertone scales typical of Arabic music.

Into the 1980s synthesizers and electronic instruments made their debut in Mediterranean Israeli music.

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