“Don’t Tell Me Underground”: The Politics of Joy and Melancholy in Jordan’s Alternative Arabic Music

A major issue in popular English-language media today is the tendency to misrepresent Arabs as merely victims or enactors of violence. So far, the near-absence of Jordan in music scholarship across genres means that academics have much yet to do in order to help correct these misrepresentations. My dissertation begins to fill this gap by representing the thriving alternative Arabic music scene surrounding Amman, Jordan. Drawing on my ethnographic field research in Amman from 2016-2019, I analyze how Mashrou' Leila expresses political dissensus through melancholy, how 47Soul and Ayloul perform decolonial joy through dabkeh, and how El Far3i represents the nuances of Palestinian Indigeneity through ambiguous lyrics. I conclude with updates from Ertidad, Mais Sahli, and Sari Abuladel on new music projects and developments from the pandemic year. My analysis makes interdisciplinary contributions by linking current work from feminist studies and critical Indigenous studies to my particular MENA case studies. I argue that in its nuanced forms, alternative Arabic music is a powerful mode for expressing and elevating the voices of everyday, often marginalized people in and around Jordan. Musicians in the scene use their work to express that their challenges have not defeated them. They compel listeners to hear a fuller spectrum of who they are as they dance in the dark.