| 1. The word beur, and
today’s inversion rebu, comes from French
suburban slang (verlan) in which the main rule is word
inversion. Often the youngsters born to immigrant parents
employ this word to identify themselves. For this reason
I have decided to use the term beur in this
article. 2. This reality
is not common to France alone. However, the results of
this study cannot be generalized before specific study on
other similar realities has been done.
3. Due to his international
success, Khaled has not used the appellative cheb
since 1992. Cheb is the typical but extremely
ethnic Algerian name given to raļ singers to distinguish
them from the old singer (chikh).
4. Some days ago I received
confirmation that older raļ styles still coexist with
new ones, but songs in these styles tell about recent
political events.
5. For more information about
Algerian raļ history see the bibliography.
6. Normally, in fact, the
different styles coming from the same repertoire replace
each other during the historical process. However, in the
new style there could be, at most, only some musical
quotation.
7. Even if in the history of
raļ there were some collective concerts, such as the
famous Bobigny concert, the stars of raļ performed alone
or eventually in the classic duet of man-woman.
8. About the raļ sound group
made up of Algerians living in Algeria I refer to Poulsen
1999. It must be added anyway that Poulsen's fieldwork
was carried out from 1990 to the middle of 1992 and
Algerian raļ is continually changing.
9. Music of Kabyli singers was
similar to other immigration songs. It is now important
to mention that Kabyli people are considered an ethnic
minority within Algeria, and usually see themselves as
distinct from Arab traditions as well as other Berber
cultures, with their own language and customs. It is
significant that this group (reputed to have a
particularly strong work ethic in Algeria) who was
marginalized in the home country was the most keen to
emigrate in the 1960s. Kabyli people frequently refer to
themselves as the 'original Algerians' present before
Islam and Arab domination. Many 'Arab' Algerians, on the
other hand, portray all Berbers as somewhat savage, and
some claim that Kabyli people were descended from Roman
settlers, and therefore were not really 'native.'
10. Urban music style from the
Alger area that has relevant success among Algerian
immigrants.
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