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The Sound Affects of the Syrian Uprising
Abstract
Since the outbreak of the Syrian uprising in March 2011 and the ensuing attempt to quell it, internet users have been responding to the uprising and its sounds. These sounds, either through music supporting the regime or the opposition, or mediated through recordings of the noises of modern warfare, affected listeners and often engendered publics and counterpublics. These publics and counterpublics formed around the sounds of post-Arab Spring Syria, formed as fomenters of, not just reactors to increasing violence. Drawing on a range of works from Charles Hirschkind's "Ethical Soundscape" to Steve Goodman's "Sonic Warfare," this paper seeks to engage with the complex soundscape that has emerged online, and the publics and counterpublics formed by affective sounds in conjunction with the militarization of the Syrian uprising. It is argued that through recorded sound, students of the uprising can decipher networks of ethical and aesthetic values, and literally hear the cacophony of the conflict. For instance, Salafi Islamist counterpublics emerged against the mainstream publics of traditional Syrian and Arab music listeners. They brought to the soundscape a cappella songs called anashid (nashid, sing), which were shaped by Islamic ethics (forbidding women's voices and instrumental accompaniment). Then a hybrid genre emerged with songs recorded and uploaded to YouTube both with and without music, and often using colloquial Arabic to emphasize the local Syrian-ness of the target audience. A discourse formed within the oppositional factions whereby patriotic Syrian publics found themselves subverted by transnational Salafi counterpublics. Moreover, soundtracks have been produced for Salafi military propaganda videos where the anashid are nearly drowned out by sounds of warfare, assaulting the listener and forcing her or him to make the choice to cower or brave the fray, flee or run to the fight. So by broadening the sample to include a range of online content from music videos to noise-based soundtracks, we see counterpublics forming in opposition to publics, as the limits of previously acceptable sounds are stretched, rejected, or simply made obsolete through human suffering. New sounds disseminated and listened to by publics and counterpublics during the evolution of the Syrian conflict are then not just artifacts but also weapons in the arsenal of warfare.
Discipline
History
Geographic Area
Syria
Sub Area
Current Events