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04/27/2022 08:30 AMAn introductory Arabic class at Guilford High School. Experiencing the Egyptian Revolution in Tahrir Square. Discovering the power of two magnetic tape reels inside a plastic case. Those are three essential elements that helped launch Andrew Simon on a 10-year journey to research and write his new book, Media of the Masses–Cassette Culture in Modern Egypt.
In this story of Egypt’s recent past as seen through the window of the country’s cassette culture, Andrew, a historian of media and pop culture in the modern Middle East, explores the incredible importance of the circulation of cassette tapes in Egypt as a pre-Internet tool. The tapes put a broad range of globally influenced, often rule-challenging media into the hands—and ears—of citizens otherwise subjected to state-controlled Egyptian media.
“One of the things I explore is how cassettes empowered an unprecedented number of people to transition from being cultural consumers to cultural producers, for the first time ever,” says Andrew.
Courtesy of those plastic, palm-sized, two-sided cassette tapes, Egyptians were empowered to embrace much more than global pop culture as they circulated tapes of all types, with many often challenging those in power, such as political authorities, cultural gatekeepers, and religious officials.
Long before the advent of the Internet, Egypt’s cassette culture began to rise in the 1970’s and 1980’s.
“So all of these things we attribute to social media [such as] elevating people’s voices, challenging positions of power—what I’m trying to show in the book is that, actually, this far simpler technology did all of this decades prior, in that 1970s to 1980s moment,” says Andrew.
In Egypt’s oil boom era of the 1970s, acquiring a dual cassette player was one of the ways in which Egyptians showed they were “modern,” says Andrew.
“You had many Egyptians going abroad in search of higher wages and a better livelihood, and they would often buy different consumer items abroad and then return to Egypt with them,” Andrew explains. “And the two things that they would often buy would be an electric fan and dual cassette player. And that was a big part of the advent of the cassette culture in Egypt.”
He notes Egypt’s cassette-fueled culture expanded well into the early 2000s, despite the change-over from tapes to CDs.
“CDs were so expensive, and if you dropped it, it’s useless,” says Andrew. “But you could run a cassette over with a bicycle and it still worked. So cassettes continued to be the dominant medium for 30 years. There are cassettes, even to this day, that continue to linger. There are cassette shops, and people are still buying cassettes.”
A Story of Modern Egypt
As far back as the 1930s, Egyptian radio was state-controlled so that only carefully vetted programs and music could be aired.
“It was very Orwellian,” says Andrew. “They would have a text committee. People would have to submit lyrics to them, and if they were approved, they would record a song which would then go to a listening committee; if they approved it, it then would go to a station, and they would also have to approve a song before it finally was heard by people over the radio.”
As a result, only a very limited number of artists were broadcast.
“The cassette undermined all of that. Now, anyone could reach a mass audience,” says Andrew, adding, “some of the content was certainly subversive in the conventional sense, where it challenged the Egyptian government.”
Shortly after graduating from Duke in 2010, Andrew was in Egypt for studies as a fellow at the Center for Arabic Study Abroad in Cairo, where he had a front-row seat to the Egyptian Revolution.
“I was in Cairo on this intensive fellowship, and the classes were in downtown Cairo, right on Tahrir Square, which becomes the epicenter for these massive demonstrations,” he recalls. “We would look out our window and there would be hundreds of thousands of people calling for the downfall of this 30-year authoritarian regime. That’s what really piqued my interest in sound, media, and pop culture.”
One of the cassette artists Andrew points to in his book is the late Sheikh Imam, whose song, "Father Nixon," mocking U.S. President Richard Nixon, experienced a revival during the Egyptian Revolution.
“He was someone who grew up in a family with very few means,” says Andrew of Imam, who also lost his sight shortly after birth. “He went on to become this ordinary icon, especially when it came to the Egyptian [political] left and the Arab left.”
Many of Imam’s most popular songs undermine propagandized stories generated by state-run media, as does “Father Nixon.” Imam was inspired after Nixon traveled to Egypt in the summer of 1974, as Watergate was gaining momentum in the United States.
“Anwar Sadat was Egypt’s president, and he welcomed Nixon with open arms,” says Andrew.
The spectacle Sadat created for Egyptian media started with literally rolling out a red carpet on the airport tarmac for Nixon’s arrival, to traveling with Nixon in a jet-black Cadillac among some 200 vehicles in a caravan past applauding crowds, Andrew notes.
In his song, Imam “rewrites the entire visit,” says Andrew.
One of the things the artist does in his lyrics is to compare Nixon and Sadat’s procession to a wedding procession, in which “...Nixon plays the part of this pathetic groom that one married as a last resort, in terms of Sadat’s relationship,” says Andrew. “And when [Imam] is singing this, he actually spits on Nixon, in the cassette recording.”
The recording was copied and pirated and traveled around Egypt and the Middle East, and today can be found online at platforms including YouTube.
“It was kind of the informal, unsanctioned soundtrack to that visit, but now, it’s become the enduring account of that visit. It’s gained so much traction,” says Andrew, adding that it’s just one example of how “all of these cassette recordings have entered all of these social media platforms.”
Press Play
It was while he was in Cairo as a fellow that Andrew first became cognizant of its cassette culture. His fascination, and a return trip abroad for further research, spurred on his decade of work to develop Media of the Masses.
“One of the things that I wanted to do was to think creatively with, and critically about, pop culture,” says Andrew. “What can we learn from popular culture if we treat it as an avenue of inquiry into the past? How can we look at very ordinary things, like a cassette tape, and maybe learn some surprising lessons from those things that surround us in our lives?”
One of the other areas he wanted to explore with his book was “how can we do more with media and media history, especially beyond just telling a conventional story of a technology’s invention. I wanted to look at what happens after something exists, and how is it used in ways the inventor did not imagine.”
He envisioned developing Media of the Masses along the lines of a mix-tape, with each chapter about a particular theme in a book that’s basically divided into two parts, which “...I think of as Side A and Side B,” says Andrew.
Side A/Part One is about the making of Egypt’s cassette culture during a time of what was also a widening mass of consumer culture, in general. Side B/Part Two looks at the cassettes’ impact, as a producer of culture, information circulator, and writer of history. Each chapter can be equated to tracks on a cassette tape. Covering topics such as archives, history, circulation, and the law, Andrew dips into compelling cassette connections ranging from piracy (circulation) to smuggling and theft (the law).
“I just hope that it’s a story in which anyone can find something that piques their interest,” says Andrew. “This is not a story for Middle East scholars. It’s something for people that are just interested in pop culture, in music, in media. That was really my intention in writing it.”
Over the years, Andrew has gathered hundreds of cassette tapes. He’s currently building a website for an online archive that he’ll also share on social media platforms such as SoundCloud and Instagram. Follow Andrew on Twitter @simongandrew for updates on when the archive goes live.
“Anyone interested in music or the Middle East will be able to go to this and listen to these tapes,” he says. “And on the tapes, you encounter everyone. You encounter Michael Jackson. Madonna. Political speeches from presidents. Popular music. Jazz. It’s such a wide array of material.”
It All Began in Guilford
Andrew says his introduction to Arabic studies at Guilford High School (GHS) in 2005-2006 led him to this point in his career.
“I enrolled in the very first Arabic class that was ever offered there, in 2005,” says Andrew. “That was when Radouane Nasry, who is the Arabic instructor up to this day, decided to offer an Arabic class [due] to all the mounting misconceptions around the Middle East, post-9/11.”
Andrew had studied Spanish for several years. He wanted to do something a bit different and was very curious about the Middle East, he says.
“I wanted to learn and took that class. And that sparked this life-long interest in the region,” says Andrew.
He also notes that, in 2005, the GHS Arabic program was one of only a handful offered at public high schools in the country.
“It was something that was quite exceptional, and a very unique opportunity,” says Andrew.
From his GHS start in Arabic studies, Andrew went on to earn a B.A. in Arabic, Middle East, and Islamic studies from Duke University and Ph.D. from Cornell University. He’s now in his fifth year as lecturer and research associate in Middle Eastern studies at Dartmouth College (New Hampshire).
Andrew says it’s one of those things you think about in your life—those small decisions that made a monumental difference.
“It all began in Guilford,” says Andrew. “I’m so grateful to Mr. Nasry. This all goes back to him and that class. Taking that Arabic class really sent me down this path to where I am now.”
Media of the Masses—Cassette Culture in Modern Egypt by Andrew Simon (April 2022, Stanford University Press), can be ordered through Breakwater Books in Guilford. Learn more about the book and author at the Stanford University Press website here