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duaa7343-blog · 5 years ago

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The Development of Arabic Music

I grew up with a love of music, all kinds and styles of music. I loved listening to Indian, French, Spanish, Korean, Japanese and many others types of music. However, as an Arabian girl I cannot deny the extreme influence of Arabic music in my life and my memories. My ear got used to the sound of the delicate beats of the Arabian oud, that familiar sound is played on my heartstrings. Sometimes I ask myself why Arabic music isn’t popular around the world although it is rich with unique melodies? Many people have never listened to it before. Why are some styles of music more preferred among people than others? I would like to see Arabic music getting the recognition it deserves and reaches more and more people around the world because I believe that music connects people together, and helps us to understand each other. Not to mention that it plays a big factor on how a culture is perceived. That’s why I did some research on this topic to get a better understanding of this issue.

To develop something in the right direction, you should look closely into two things: what it is lacking, and what are the obstacles that are stopping it from developing. No matter how much time we spend trying to make something work, we won’t be able to make it work if we don't know what is actually missing. When it comes to Arabic music, there are some things that Arabic music is lacking. First, music is rarely tough in schools in Arabian countries. There weren't any classes that teach music in my country. That is why many people grew without being able to practice music and understand the importance of it. Other things that are missing in Arabic music are preferred more by certain ages and certain types of people. Arabic music didn’t change so much over time and it lacks the diversity. For example, it doesn’t contain enough things to keep all of the age groups attracted. It is important to understand, young ages are not always focused or driven by real talent, but rather to what catches their eyes and what is popular and trending. People these days need to watch and listen to things that keep them entertained. Most of the time Arabic songs don’t contain english phrases, music videos, and often dances are not performed in the concerts which makes people feel less enthusiastic and involved with it.

Now it is the time to answer the second question: what are the obstacles that are stopping the music from developing? Music in Arabic or the Islamic countries has been facing a lot of challenges and it was fought by many people from the day it was started until this day. From an Islamic perspective, people are divided into more than one type. Some people in the middle east who compeletly support listening and enjoying the music and believe it is allowed in Islam and it should be more opened and develped. There are other moderate people -which I support- who believe music should be only in a certain type. It should only be constructive and discuss topics that talk about values and it shouldn’t contain bad words, dancing moves that violate decency. Another type of people who completely fight against music and believe it is evil and it is not allowed because it manipulates people's minds and its harms are more than its benefits. Many people in the middle east still resist the idea of being open to new types of music because some people believe that being open might lead to moral decay. However, this issue makes many young people drift away from Arabic music and choose to listen to different styles of music.

As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, I support being moderate when it comes to music. However, I can understand both sides’ point of view and why both sides think they are right. I can see why people want Arabic music to be more open and free. People do not like the feeling of being restrained, tied or suppressed. People love freedom and love to have their inner voice heard. They want Arabic music to meet their actual feelings. On the other hand, when people are raised on certain beliefs, they find it difficult to accept new ways and change their view that they have been taught since they were born. Especially when they think they are saving society by fighting against what they think is right. They feel like they carry on their shoulders the task of fixing what they believe to be corrupt. People who resist music have many fears that music would insert bad behaviors in society, destroy the family bonds, and young people's minds. They want to protect -in their view- the world by fighting against music. That is why I see that they have good intentions behind what they are doing. In this case, not everyone agrees on the same definition of music development. Some people believe that development comes with changing our tradition and beliefs and other people who shut the door of development because of the fear of its dire consequences.

It is true that music can affect human behavior? Yes it absolutely can. Like everything else in this world, music can change human mood and behaviors in good and bad ways. The words of the songs and the music that is played can affect the brain and the subconscious mind. There are many cases when songs have lead people to commit suicide, crimes or take drugs. On the opposite side, there are many more songs that helped people through a hard time and gave them hope in life. Should we worry about music manipulating our minds? In my opinion, everything in the world has its downsides. However, we should be careful when we are dealing with those things. I don’t think avoiding music would prevent people from doing bad behaviors. If someone wants to do bad things, they will find million ways and reasons that encourage them to do so. I believe that it depends on us how we want music to affect us.

After discussing these problems, I would like to discuss how these problems affect the Arabic world and why it is important in my opinion to encourage people to develop Arabic music to the better. It is a human tendency that when you limit people, they try to find alternative ways that make them feel they are in control. Sometimes we think by limiting something we solve the problem. We think that when we prevent others from doing something, we reduce people's interest in it. But quite the opposite. We see that people are thirsty for art that expresses their feelings without restrictions. As a result of the lack of different types of music in the Arab world, people choose to follow Western music because it is advanced, developed and free, rather than seeking to encourage the new talents that we have. Not only that, another result for that, many Arabian artists choose to not sing in Arabic. At this point we realize that when Arabic music doesn’t make people feel happy, that might lead to bigger problems such as, not feeling a sense of belonging to their culture and they feel that there is a barrier between them and their culture.

That’s why this topic is important to me. It is an undeniable fact that music can do many amazing things. Music makes people feel peaceful, united and understood. In fact, it is an important factor to build a culture and it is how many cultures are defined these days. When we hear someone is from Korea, many of us think about K-pop and k-drama. Korean music is very famous these days. Korean bands are performing in many countries and getting fans from all around the world. BTS is a korean band, composed of seven members who performed at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards that was in Los Angeles. Many people consider them as their role models in life and many people who don’t speak korean have learned the language and dream to visit Korea as a result of the big influence of their music. It is great to see how the world embraces many talents from different places. It is a beautiful thing that can make people understand and feel closer to each other.

What are the things that attract people to listen to music in the first place? Music world is very entertaining because of many reasons. Music is very interesting because it deals directly with our emotions. We get different responses depending on the type of music we listen to. For example, we like loud music because it can give us a sense of happiness and motivation, quiet music because it gives us a sense of relaxation and calmness, sad music because it gives us a sense of comfort and relief and the list goes on. Not to mention that but many people listen to music because they admire the artist. There are many artists that we like and we find ourselves following their news and care about them and want to support them because music creates a bond between the listener and the performer. Another thing that attracts people to music is when music is trendy. There is something special that drives people to listen to a certain song that is popular. Many people listen to popular music, for example most of the young people like the music that is popular in “Tiktok” because it is considered as a theme between a group of people and listening to it would make them a part of a certain group and get them closer to each other.

After spotting the things that Arabic music is lacking, and understanding the real obstacles that face Arabic music and understanding what actually attracts people to listen to music in the first place, I would like to introduce my action plan to “Arab Music Magazine”. My action plan promotes the idea of helping Arabic music to develop. I believe “Arab Music Magazine” has many aware readers that are conscious about this problem and can help to solve it. In our Arabic world, we have many talents that are hidden because of the fear of the rejection and the society’s opinion. We should encourage young people to be proud of their culture, and offer them a platform for their talents and for their ideas that are related to the development of music. We should believe in these new talents and what they can bring to Arabic music. Arabic music, like everything, needs a renewal in order to progress. We should allow ourselves to be creative and think more openly about the future so the world could hear us. Developing doesn’t mean changing our identities or who we are, development means to embrace what we have. Another point that I have is that younger people can learn faster than adults. Since many countries don’t teach music classes in schools, we need to educate people about the importance of music since they are kids and have the time to learn music and find their passion and encourage schools to teach these classes.

When I think about the future of Arabic music, I truly can see it getting the recognition it deserves and getting bigger and bigger in the next few years. I can see many great Arabic songs are known by many people around the world. In this new world, anything can happen. In the last year, music classes were officially added to the schools, and concerts became allowed in my country. The future is promising as long as young people learn music in schools. Things are changing day by day at the speed of light, giving the hope that Arabic music will finally see the light. Not to mention that people are starting to have different opinions toward music and more and more people now are supportive to the development of music.

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duaa7343-blog · 5 years ago

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Opinion Series

Audience: Arabic language student friend

Hello Gretchen, I hope you’re doing well with school and everything. Last time we talked you told me that you’re struggling with learning Arabic, I completely understand how you feel regarding learning Arabic. Trust me, I have been there too and it’s not always fun! I know sometimes learning a new language can be very hard and frustrating in many ways and we feel like we’re about to give up. When I first started to learn english back in my country, I was just like you, struggling to learn English, especially learning new words. Most of the time, I learn a new word for one time, and then it’s gone, and I can’t remember it anymore. That’s because I don’t use it or hear it every day or ever, which makes remembering a real struggle. However, I think I found a solution to this problem! I really want to help you on this and with everything I can as an Arabic language speaker friend.

After doing some research about Arabic music and how it is viewed to non-Arabic speakers for my English project that I am currently working on, I found some information that I wanted to share with you, and might hopefully help you. I found a research that talks about listening to music from different languages would make the learning easier for you. It’s amazing what music does to us huh? Sometimes we listen to music only for one time and then we find ourselves remembering the words perfectly without making an effort to actually memorize it. For me, when I listen to music that I like in english, I feel obliged to look up the lyrics and to understand the meaning, and then everything becomes easier and I find myself using those new words everywhere because of how they sound! Quickly, I gained a lot of vocabulary just by listening to music in english every day, and it became more familiar to my ears than before, to the point that I was able to sing everything and pronounce the words correctly. When we sing we try to imitate the voice and the sound of the word, and that’s another reason to why I find them very helpful. Also, that helps us link the words to something in our lives, and makes it more relatable. You might agree with me that using songs as a method to learn a new language is a fun way to learn without having to sit with the book trying to find a way to remember new words. I kid you not, I can understand some Korean, Japanese and a bit of french only by listening and being a fan to their music, crazy huh?

At the end, I just wanted to check on you and see how you’re doing. Please, don’t hesitate to reach out to me if you needed any help, and of course, I would love to share with you some geart Arabic songs that I am sure you would like ;)

Background music can aid second language learning.

Odeh Rishmavi. “The Principle of the Harmony System of the Arabic Music.” Polylinguality and Transcultural Practices, no. 3, 2009, p. 123. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsdoj&AN=edsdoj.678d2b52c0bb491c8b25857203884d48&site=eds-live.https://journals-sagepub-com.ezproxy.uvu.edu/doi/pdf/10.1177/0305735613485152

Audience: Music students in Utah Valley University

In this little presentation that I will present to you Arabic today, I will talk briefly about Arabic music, the musical instruments used and the method of playing, and I will share later the similarities and differences. I hope you benefit and enjoy this presentation and find something that inspires you. Since music is not my academic major, I hope you excuse my little information about music in general because it is limited compared to you as music students.

In the past the differences between Arabic and westren music were huge, but as the time progressed, they started to give more similarities. That is why I will start from the past.

Zither, oud, flute, rebab and rhythmic instruments such as tambourine, riq and many others are purely distinct Arab instruments that we do not find identically in Western music. However, this does not negate the presence of instruments somewhat similar to them in Western music.

We find that westerners have set specific standards and roles for their instruments and put science that studies how to bring and use different musical instruments together (mechanical music distribution). While the Arab musical instrument industry still lacks specific standards and role to use scientific methods and advanced technologies, there is no clear education for Arab musical instrument distribution. Although Western musical instruments entered Arabic music extensively, their use remained rudimentary without experiential rules. In 1932 the first international conference for Arab music was held in Cairo, which witnessed some kind of revival. To this day, this conference is considered one of the most important milestones in the development of modern history of Arabic music. A crowd of musicians, critics and historians of music from across the Arab world, Turkey, Iran and Europe gathered for the first time to find out the detail of Arab music and to exchange experiences in a serious dialogue between cultures. Among them are important world musicians, authors and critics.

On the one hand, when it comes to the musical scales, things are different. Without doubt, the musical diversity and Arabic tunes are much richer than the Western music scales. That’s because the music contains a (quarter tune) and many maqamat (as Bayat, Rast, Sikah, Iraq, Saba, etc.) while Western uses the regular tunes. From my understanding, the western musical scales consist of three types: (major) and (minor), which also includes three basic types, natural, harmonious and melodic.

In terms of singing, there are two levels, the classical level, where the big difference appears between the Western operatic singing, which is characterized by the use of stationary tunes, and classical Arab singing full of rapture.

In all cases, these days it must be recognized that the differences are in general and that there are much more points of convergence than points of difference. Music is a global language, and there are many songs when we take away the language in them we will not be able to distinguish in terms of Arabic or Western or belonging to any musical style.

"Introducing: The Arabic Oud.” uploaded by Brandon Acker, 9 Mar 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA5VdzRHh-U

“Words Adorned: Classical Arab Music in Relation to Western Music.” YouTube, uploaded by AlBustanSeeds, 13 October 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5whQkK3Jetg

Audience: Famous Arabian youtuber that sings only in English

Hello, I have been following up with your videos. First of all, Congratulations on your 1 million subscribers on Youtube! Man, I can see you are doing a great job and working very hard on your music covers, especially the latest ones. I see everyone comments positively on your videos. I really think you're talented and I am very happy and proud of you and of what you are doing as an Arab man who sings perfectly in English and has fans from all over the world.

I have attached this video to you by Alaa Wardi who is a famous artist that is known for doing Arabic music covers using his own style called a cappella. This music video includes the development of Arabic music. I have some suggestions for your next videos, and I hope you will put my suggestions in consideration. Arabic music may not be familiar to you since you grew up in a non-Arab country, but I am sure that your musical ear can notice that we have something special in our music and there are distinct rhythms that are not found elsewhere. Because I trust that you are a great musician, who has a real talent and is popular and respected by many people, I trust your ability to make our Arabic music flourish and spread outside the Arab world. I think introducing and mixing another type of music to your covers will play a great role and great benefits for you and the others around you. In this email, I will talk about these benefits and I will explain my point of view as briefly and detailed as possible.

First, mixing some words or some Arabic rhythms will attract a lot of people to listen to your songs and interact with them because they are very distinct from the music that you are used to performing in your channel. Not only that, as there are people who will interact with that, the Arab on the other side will support you and get a wide range of new fans from all of the Arab countries and we can’t underestimate their huge influence on your success. Not to mention that, with the popularity that your covers get, people will become more aware of what Arab artists can offer. A lot of people still have limited ideas about the Arab world, and many think that it lacks some types of arts as our songs don’t get enough recognition. As an Arab young artist, you will contribute to improving the image of Arabs. I believe that music can spread peace, because music reaches hearts first and this is what many people need at this time, to become close to each other and love each other.

I know that changing the style completely and suddenly is a big and bold step for you to take, and therefore I suggest that you start slowly by mixing two types of art in a way that shows the beauty of each type of music.

At the end, I wish you all luck and I can’t wait to see how far you will get in the future. Keep up the great work.

Wardi, Alaa. “Evolution of Arabic Music | تطور الموسيقى العربية.” YouTube, uploaded by Alaa Wardi, 26 april 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPvyl6MYxlg.

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duaa7343-blog · 5 years ago

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Annotated Bibliography

That is true, there are people that consider music as a fun way to learn a new language, and I am one of those people who learned a lot of English, Korean and Japanese from listening to music. For me, it is easier to remember words and sentences that are repeated and beautifully framed in a piece of music than to study them from a book. Besides, sometimes we listen to music a few times, then surprisingly we find it sticks in our minds all day or even all week. We find ourselves automatically keep playing the same song in our head over and over again until we remember it word by word. Not to mention that most people when they listen to a music that is with a different language, they get very curious about its meaning. Then, they search for the translation of its lyrics, and unintentionally learn words, phrases from this song which leads us to appreciate it more. This study research is amazing, because it proves to us that it is a right theory. The participants that were assigned to listen to “Arabic or Chinese” music on CD, were significantly able to recall and translate the music more than those who didn’t listen to the music.

That is why I believe this source has valuable information about using music for learning purposes and getting involved in different cultures. Exploring new music can be an important and eye opening experience, it is like exploring a whole new culture.

Background music can aid second language learning.

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This source focused on analyzing Arabic music specially in hejaz and makkah from 1905 and 1906 and how it preserved by Westren. Makkah is the place where Islam started and it has the most famous place for musilm which is al-Kaaba. A long time ago, many musilms come to Hejaz to visit or stay there, that is why in hejaz there have been many mixed Islamic cultures and races from around the world. As I thought, many westren think it sounds similar to “Quran” recitation, and prayer calls which is very known and developed in that area. Not surprisingly, that affect the type of music too. Quran affected the melodies of Arabic music significantly. That is why many people think some types of music sounds religious because of the melodies that are used. Arabs back then known to be well-spoken and they honor and respect that. It is also mentioned in this research that the famous songs are written as a poem called “qasida”. These Arabic poems are even more famous on per-Islamic ages, and they are written using formal and old language. They usually talk about love, and the difficulty of love. One of the famous Arabic poets is “Majnun Layla” and many of his poems have become songs. I believe these poems have led to the huge development of music since Arabic songs originated most of the time from poems. Although they are beautiful, they are more famous locally, because the language used is sort of old and they can be hard to understand as a foreigner or not arabic person.

2. ARABIC MUSIC IN WESTERN EARS: AN ACCOUNT OF THE MUSIC OF THE HEJAZ AT THE TURN OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Anne van Oostrum. “Arabic Music in Western Ears: An Account of the Music of the Hejaz at the Turn of the Twentieth Century.” Quaderni Di Studi Arabi, vol. 7, 2012, p. 127. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsjsr&AN=edsjsr.43819930&site=eds-live.https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.uvu.edu/stable/43819930?seq=11#metadata_info_tab_contents

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From my own observation, now a days Arab in general and mostly in United Arab Emirate are very affected by the westren cultures due to globalization. One of the cultures that have been significantly impacted is “music culture”. In fact, Arabic music culture didn’t transform and develop a lot over the years. However, I believe what really transformed is the musical taste of the people. Most of my friends like to listen to English and Korean and they think Arabic songs sound “old” and not “cool”. This research was dedicated to Arabic students that study westren music at the university in UAE. After reading their responses on this topic, I realized another important reason for why Arabic music doesn't have a big impact among the society today, which is the lack of Arabic music education. However, they find studying Westren incongruent with Arbaic music and the two types can conflict, and there are huge differences between them. To me, I find one of the differences is that Arabic music is traditional, and talk about few topics while the westren music is more liberal and more open to new ideas. Also, the research talked about the difference in many singing techniques and talked about the idea of joining the two together. However, the students in the research implied that they are struggling to find their musical identity and to explain it to their families. After reading this research I realized that we need both cultures, and it is important to recognize the importance of sustaining the heritage and and the appreciate value of it.

3. Arab Students' Perceptions of University Music Education in the United Arab Emirates: A Discussion of Music Education and Cultural Relevance

Good-Perkins, Emily. “Arab Students’ Perceptions of University Music Education in the United Arab Emirates: A Discussion of Music Education and Cultural Relevance.” International Journal of Music Education, vol. 37, no. 4, Nov. 2019, pp. 524–535. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1233836&site=eds-live.

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What I liked about this song analysis is that it is about a song that I really like by “umm umm kulthum” and written by a doctor and poet called “Ibrahim Nagi”. This analysis showed the process of changing the original poem to the song. To turn the poem into a song they had to delete, substitute and add some words and finally distribute the song. Also, I think it is an impressive and profound song. I have heard that the poem came from an old love story between Nagi and the girl that lived next door. The story started when Nagi was 16 years old. He loved the girl that lived in the same neighbourhood. However, he went to study medicine abroad to be a doctor. When he came back a few years later, she had already got married and he was still in love with her. After 15 years and at midnight, he found a forty-year-old man that was asking for help to save his wife that was having a difficult childbirth. In the man’s house, the wife’s face was covered, and she was in a very dangerous condition. While he was trying to save her. Suddenly, her breath began to decrease and she lost consciousness. Then Nagi asked them to reveal her face so that she could breathe. He was shocked when he saw her and she was the love of his life that he had never forgotten. After a while, she gave birth to her newborn, and "Naji" walked from the man's house and returned to his house before dawn. Then he sat at the door of his house and wrote "AlAtlal".

4. Towards an Analysis of the Discourse of Arabic Song A Case Study: Umm Kulthoum’s Song AlAtlal

Hussein, Gameel Abdelmageed. “Towards an Analysis of the Discourse of Arabic Song: A Case Study--Umm Kulthoum’s Song ‘AlAtlal.’” Forum on Public Policy Online, vol. 2015, no. 1, Jan. 2015. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1080948&site=eds-live.

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What I have read in this research is true regarding hip-hop culture in Arab countries. Hip-hop music is a new concept that is not very popular in the Arabic countries. It is very limited and I don’t remember listening to hip-hop music in Arabic before. However, this research has introduced me to some great Arabic rappers who shared some issues in the Arab world and some serious topics about the afflicted people of Palestine, Iraq and Syria. These rappers share these stories using hip-hop in a mixture of Arabic and English together into their music which makes it easy to non-arabic people to understand some words and the idea of it. What caught my attention was that it reached many people from other countries and cultures, and most of the audiences that showed on the comments were from non-Arab countries. Hip-hop might not be a part of Arabic culture, however it succeeded to prove that it can send powerful messages to the world and help cultural movement and the “Arab diaspora”. Hip-hop can be a strong representational way because it can express the feelings in a creative way besides that it is very realistic, and it gives people energy because of the high energy beats and the rhythms that make us feel that we are actually a part of it. That is why I strongly believe and expect this form of music to attract many people to listen to Arabic music, especially those who enjoy hip-hop and the younger generation.

5. The Hip-Hop Resistance: Forging Unity in the Arab Diaspora

Isherwood, Gustav. “The Hip-Hop Resistance: Forging Unity in the Arab Diaspora.” Review of Middle East Studies, vol. 48, no. 1–2, 2014, pp. 24–33. EBSCOhost.

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This video illustrated to me new things that I have never known before about classical Arab Music. The “quarter note” or the “micro-tones” is what is used in Arabic music, and which gives the music a different quality than other types of music. To clarify what “quarter note” means, they have linked it to the piano. When you go from the white key to the black key, this small interval is called a half-step. However, in Arabic music they have a lot of these smaller intervals between the notes. They use it to break the stagnation in the monophony. That is why most of the time, Arab musicians play the same music but each one of them adds something different to it, using these ''microtones'' to make the music vibrate. Also, this technique allows you to add a variety of sounds that are changing and gives the listener different feelings. Some Arabic songs have a musical intro that can go for 10 minutes or even more before the singer actually begins to sing. Weirdly, you never feel tired or bored of it, and you never feel the time because the music does not repeat itself but it keeps changing, that is why I enjoy it. Classical Westren music has its own beauty. On the other hand, they play music in unison with a structured performance. The musicians are very precise and play together at the same pace or rhythm which makes the listener feel the harmony between them and we see it in the orchestra.

6. “Words Adorned: Classical Arab Music in Relation to Western Music.” YouTube, uploaded by AlBustanSeeds, 13 October 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5whQkK3Jetg

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Alaa Wardi “the person who sings in the video” showed a very well illustration of the evolution of Arabic music by singing 42 from the most popular songs in the Arab history from before 1900 until 2015. I liked this video a lot not only because he is talented, and sings only by beatboxing without using actual musical instruments, but also because he showed a time series for how the music has developed. This video made me see the patterns of old songs along with the new ones in the same video. Everyone can notice the changes of the beats and the styles. Before 1900, they used to sing “Muwashahat” which are Arabic poetic form that came from Al-Andalus “Muslim kingdom that occupied much of the spain and Iberian Peninsula from 711 ce”. In 1920-1950, famous Egyption singers started their way such as “Sayed Darwish” who considered the father of Egyptian popular music and “umm kulthum” that is called “Star of the East”. These singers are considered very big in the hearts of everyone because they have strong voices that many people believe until today that it cannot exist twice. In 1950-1990, the style of the music was more elegant and the beats were slower and used to be very long. Some songs can go about one hour or more at that time. However in 1990-2000, the music shifted significantly and many new singers started during this small period of time. From 2000 to 2015 is how Arabic music sounds today. Music today is more energetic, has faster beats, shorter and as the time goes they are getting closer to pop music which young people like.

7. Wardi, Alaa. “Evolution of Arabic Music | تطور الموسيقى العربية.” YouTube, uploaded by Alaa Wardi, 26 april 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPvyl6MYxlg.

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Oud is one of the main instruments that is played on most of the Arabic classical songs and has a unique sound. Even though I like to listen to Arabic music, I haven’t actually had a chance to look closely into oud and I haven’t had an idea about the structure of this amazing instrument until I found this video. Now after watching this video, I have more information about how it works, and how it is played correctly. First of all, oud is the ancestor of the European “lute”. It started to appear around 5 thousand years ago. It is made of a strong hardwood and it contains a peg box in the top, a fretless neck, face of the instrument and strings. As a matter of fact, when it was first started, it used to have only four strings, however, it developed and most ouds nowadays have up to 11 strings. Oud and guitar can be similar, and many people might confuse them together due to the shape. However, there are huge differences between them in terms of the sound. Another main difference between Oud and guitar, is that the guitar is fretted unlike the oud. Oud is known to be fretless which gives it the unique sound and allows you to have an easier movement from notes. Not to mention that, there are around 50 scales people use when they play oud and some of them are used more than others. These scales are called “Maqamat” and they slightly vary from region to region.

8. "Introducing: The Arabic Oud.” uploaded by Brandon Acker, 9 Mar 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA5VdzRHh-U

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Music is a universal language. As a matter of fact, people often try to convey their messages through music in order to give these messages a deeper meaning in an artistic form. More often than not, music gets used to celebrate religious figures or spread their messages. In like manner, the middle east is known to be one of the areas that hold people from different religions and faiths. One of my all time favorite artists is Julia Boutros, who is a Lebanese arab singer and a Christian. She has a magical voice and when you listen to her music you could find some Christial references, or in some other cases, an entire Christian song, like “Ya Adra'' in which she celebrates and sings about Mary. On the other hand, you could tune to another channel on your radio to listen to some Islamic music, and the one that comes to my mind is “Qul Lel Maliha” By “Sabah Fakhri”. Sabah Fakhri is a syrian arab singer and a Quran reader and a person who used to call for prayers in mosques. In his song “Qul Lel Maliha'' he sings about someone who found a girl on his way to the mosque and fell in love with her. In the same song he performed the prayer call. By the same token you could find songs about other different religions. The middle eastern arabic music is not exclusive to one faith or one religion, but due to the background of a lot of people here, you can see diversity in this area.

9. “Julia Boutros ya 3adra جوليا بطرس - يا عدرا.” uploaded by Micha H.M, 3 Jan 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmBO87up5LY

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Throughout the history of the middle east, people have been migrating to other countries. Sometimes, this happens because of wars and politics, and some other time people migrate for simple reasons such as work and education. The middle east has been a heated area throughout the existence of mankind and humanity, this is most likely due to its unique location linking three continents. In fact, migration has brought a lot of talent and diversity to the area. At the same time, it led many talented people to leave for better opportunities. We are going to highlight two examples here. Dalida who is a famous arab singer born in Cairo, Egypt to Italian parents, her parents migrated to Egypt to have a better life and she grew there and studied music to become one of the most well known egyptian artists. She also won Miss Egypt beauty contest in 1954 and sang one an iconic Arabic song “Helwa ya baladi” which could be translated to English as “Egypt my beautiful homeland”. This song has been covered many times by different arab singers and artists who wanted to celebrate their homeland and country and this is how it became famous. Another example would be, Massari, who was born in Lebanon then migrated to Canada at an early age and became a famous R&B, pop, and hip-hop singer in Canada. He travels to the middle east a lot and collaborates with many Arab artists in different projects. There are many more other examples that migrated from, or to, the middle east and became famous and well known.

10. “داليدا - حلوة يا بلدي - Dalida - Helwa Ya Balady.” uploaded by Moseeqa TV, 29 May 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4b1K9GBLQ4

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duaa7343-blog · 5 years ago

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Music in Arabic

Most of the times, music, dancing and singing is what brings me the most joy and happiness, which is why I consider these things my passion. These days, I listen to music for a long time because it helps me feel better and relieves my loneliness, especially because I am far away from home and friends and communicating with them most of the times is difficult because of the time difference. Every time I feel homesick, I listen to music because it has the power to bring back old and beautiful memories and also it can bring me old feelings and to connect me to the roots I belong to. I am sure that everyone has their own and special music taste that they like to listen to. There are a countless number of reasons to why we prefer some type of music over another. Sometimes there are hidden reasons that we don’t really pay attention to that affect our music taste. It’s interesting to me to see how the type of music we listen to can shape or define our personalities, and on the other hand, how we can shape the many unique types of music according to our personalities, experiences and backgrounds. In fact, Music is an art that always impresses me not only to listen to it, but I also to dive more into it, into the stories behind it, why it is made, for who, who enjoys it and why.

In this project, I will write about Arabic music. I love this kind of art and I feel that it has a special beauty on it, and that’s why I strongly believe that it should have more respect, and I always wish the young people from our generation to get to know it and to get interested in it. However, when I think about this topic I always have some questions that come to my mind such as: What changes have occurred to Arabic music? What are the reasons for these changes? How does the religion and politics affect the music? How cultural development contributed on music? How does the music affects the people in the Middle East? How the instruments used, words, style and audience have changed over time? Why does changing the style of music can also affect a wide range of people their way of thinking? How is affects the brain? Why does the younger generation tend to prefer Western music? How can we improve Arabic music to make it more popular? What are the motives that make people listen to music? What attracts people to listen to music? Does language have any effect while listening to music? What are those effects of the language?

Arabic music is a wide topic to write about, not to mention that there are many Arab countries that were and are still considered advanced in terms of art and music, such as Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon, Iraq, saudi Arabia and many others. That’s why I will need to narrow and minimize the sources of the information that I will use in the research. I will collect data through new and old music, influential Arab artists and their stories that they have passed through, different topics around which music revolves in different times and periods, and the musical instruments that were used in the past and now. I will look about and focus on what have written or said about Arabic music in the media around the world using UVU library database using the key words such as: “Foreign music”, “Arabic music”, “music effects” and “popular music” to guide me through writing the research. My role in this project is to analyse the information I get, and my purpose to use all this information to find answers to all of those questions. I feel qualified for doing the project research because I feel related and passionate about this topic and I have some knowledge since I like to listen to not only Arabic music but also English, Korean and Japanese music. Provided that, I will make sure to not be biased towards any type of music and show both weaknesses and strengths in Arabic music and I will share both the things that have regressed and the things that have improved for the better. As has been noted, What brought me to consider writing this research topic is that many people in Utah don’t know much about Arabic culture and I believe that music is a strong influence on every culture and it also can introduce and represent the beauty of any culture.

I plan to make a survey that dedicated to UVU students who are interested in music to see if there are people who have heard about Arabic music before. Also, I will ask in the survey about which type of music do they like to hear and why and what are the things that attract them to listen to music in general. What I want to get from this project is to find answers to my questions and to understand the history of Arabic music and what has affected it and what role does it play in the world today and how much people from different countries knows about it. With this in mind, the project will be successfully accomplished if I was able to introduce Arabic music to new people that have never heard about it in the hope that I will be able to find ways to make it more popular around the world because I would love if more people were able to see the bright and beautiful side of my culture. This topic matters to me because after all I believe we all need to hear each other, important to realize that and the best way to hear each other is through art and music always hold stories and have the power to bring more peace and beauty to this world and everyone can feel it and it doesn't matter where they are from.

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duaa7343-blog · 6 years ago

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I watched the video and although I'm not a follow-up to the world of dance but by watching this video I was amazed at the amount of harmony between the team, no doubt the team has been trained a lot to able obtain this result and spent a lot of time with each other because I can really feel I can feel harmony among team members, I feel like the team is moving together like a pulsating together like a heart, that's amazing! Dance is a beautiful world, because it conveys a lot of feelings, ideas and events that are not described in words through body movements, and this is what I was able to understand through the video and through how you described the video in the essay.

Aesthetic Critique/Review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyjKXR_Vd-M

As a Latin formation team member, I really appreciate quality dancers and intricate choreography, and the performance by the 2017 Latin Formation World Champions, the Russian team DUET Perm, is one of the best examples of Latin formation dancing I have ever seen. The video of their Vienna championship performance, available on Youtube, this showed us a perfection of the formation dancing. They had competed as a Latin formation team by eight men and women couples, and they brought the theme called “one heartbeat” with their united performance.

In the ballroom dance world there are two sections of competitions. One section is an individual competition where a couple is on the floor competing against other couples, while the second section involves formation teams consisting of six to eight couples on the floor dancing a choreographed routine together. Although I grew up dancing as a child I did not know about formation style competitions until I became a member of the UVU Ballroom Dance Tour Team. Since being on a formation team, I have learned a lot about how to blend in with all the other dancers on the team as well as watch each other to make sure all of the formations are hit when they need to be. While competing and performing with my team, I have been able to learn how to critically analyze other teams while they perform to see what makes a good team a good team.

I found this video of the Russian team and so many comments of it while I was on Facebook because of how popular it was among the ballroom dance community. They were incredible as a team, but each one of them had a trained technique and they also performed as an amazing performer individually. General speaking in the ballroom dance field, individual competitors are more trained their techniques and expressions, and teams are more focused on matching each other. However, although having incredible technique and performance on each is good point, if there is too much of talents on each couple, it makes team not matched. However, because they all had the incredible trained techniques like an individual competitor, it made the team work fantastic. Overall I liked the concept of their entire performance, from their costuming, their choreography, and their music selection. Especially their costumes were very cute and matched with their theme “one heart.” I literally could feel their “one heart,” this is a very big thing for formation work. This team captured the audience the moment they took breaths together to create a heart beat, boom boom boom boom. Even the team has everything that is needed for the perfect performance, the heart that is the love of dance or the love for members is always the big key of their success.

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duaa7343-blog · 6 years ago

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Beautiful essay, it made me wonder if the ballroom dancing is an art or a sport, but I think it is a combination of the two, and I think that everyone through dancing has a different goal because there are many types of dances and dancers. “Through dance movement a story is told, emotions are felt, and feelings are felt by not only those watching but by the dancers themselves.” This sentence made me feel the deep side of the dancing. Dancing is not only movements but it’s feelings too that should be appreciated. Also, I liked how you compared the dancing with playing soccer and how they players don’t pay attention to their movement while they are playing sports, but the dancers need to move consciously while they dance!

The controversy of ballroom dancing as an art form or competitive sport:

CONCLUSION

The question of whether ballroom dancing is an art form or a sport, will always have contradicting ideas. Ultimately, if ballroom dancing is considered a sport or an art form the entertainment of dancing remains the same. Enjoying aspects of what is considered to be a sport and what is considered to be art are adapted to how the audience member perceives it and should be enjoyed in all aspects. Reading up on the articles I have provided above should give you a decent idea of the opposing sides and allow thoughts of your own.

So sit back and enjoy the experience of the world of ballroom dance.

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duaa7343-blog · 6 years ago

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I watched the music video and I liked your analysis of the song and the like the message it carries. It builds confidence in overweight people, and it's not a shame that people have more weight. Not everyone should have bodies like model’s body. I like the part when you said that “The visual representation that “bigger” girls can have fun and get attention from others helps break the stigma that is associated with larger body types.” It is true, all body shapes are beautiful with of all its differences. I agree that the colors in the video are soft and girlish colors to reflect on the idea that large sizes do not mean that women are not pretty or feminine like thin women.

Rhetorical Analysis of “All About That Bass”

No matter where you turn images of the “perfect” body type are being imprinted in your brain. The idea of the “perfect” body is advertised through billboards, commercials, and even music videos. In a way society’s views on body image brainwash the way that people view themselves typically in a negative way. In general, music videos help promote the idea that the way you look is the only thing that matters. Music videos create the illusion of the glamourous world that only individuals who have a modelesque body can obtain.

One music video that promotes body image in reverse is “All About That Bass,” by Meghan Trainor. This popular song describes body shaming in reverse. Although the song clearly states the idea that there is no shame in having a bigger body, there is also a hidden message behind the words. This song seems to be promoting self love towards the body you have but puts those individuals who are skinny and in shape down. In the music video Meghan Trainor is dancing with other girls who are all around the same body size as her. Although, Meghan is not fat, in society’s eyes she is considered to be more plus size. The visual representation that “bigger” girls can have fun and get attention from others helps break the stigma that is associated with larger body types.

This music video was creatively well done. Having dancers who do not have the traditional dancer’s body catches the attention of those with a similar body type. Throughout the music video Meghan and her dancers are enjoying themselves when a skinny girl shows up. Once this modelesque girl is introduced into the video it is clear that she does not belong. Besides her body size, she is dressed in plastic wrap, insinuating that thin girls are fake. There is a part of the song that goes, “Boys like a little more booty to hold at night,” saying that guys like girls who have more fat on their bones. The skinny girl gets shown to be rejected by the guy in the video because of the way she looks. The producer of this music video cleverly sneaks in the idea that skinniness and fitness should not be desired if you want to get all the guys and have a fun life.

The colors used in this video manipulate the viewers to think that Meghan is a sweet innocent girl. Now I am not saying that she is not a sweet person, because I am sure she is, I just see what actions were taken to make this video successful. The light pastel colors that are used in this video create a calming almost childish feeling. These colors along with the girly outfits, creates a feeling of innocent, fun, nice girls. Ideally, nice girls are not bullies, hidden bullying in this case is present by shaming those who work on having a thin body. The lyrics of this song say that things like “I ain’t no size two,” “I won’t be no stick figure, silicone Barbie doll,” although she does not come out saying that it is not good to be skinny, she clearly states that she will never fall into the “skinny” trend.

Meghan Trainor’s song influences the body positive movement that aims to help individuals feel more positive about their bodies despite their weight. This is demonstrated in verse two of her song: “I see the magazines workin’ that Photoshop/ We know that shit ain’t real, C'mon now, make it stop/ If you got beauty beauty, just raise ‘em up/ Cause every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top,” This verse indicates that women who think they are fat should feel good about their bodies. While the rest of the song contradicts this while constantly reminding them that they are not skinny. This song ultimately promotes skinny hate by showing the girls being standoffish and mean to the skinny girl. It is definitely demeaning to tell others that they are fat but it is just as demeaning to tell others that they are skinny as well.

How is it that body shaming is only bad when it is towards “fat” people and ok when it is towards “skinny” people? The interesting thing about this song is that it has been viewed as an anthem to promote positive body image but does so by having a negative outlook on those who are skinny. The way you look is not the only important thing. Unfortunately, in this day and time it seems to be one of the highest things on people’s minds. Ideally, women should not have to worry about being “perfect from the bottom to the top.” This line does not only indicate “body perfection” in general but also tells women that the reason to like your body is because men like their bodies. Unhealthy self esteem can come from the idea that a woman’s only purpose is to please a man, even though this is not the case.

Behind the popular catchy tune, and artistic music video, the public can be manipulated with what this song is promoting. The main idea of, love your body, that this song is sharing has multiple layers that does not always tie into this main idea. For an anthem of self love, it lacks equality for all body types and shames those who are thin and do not have “big booties.” Although, this song is loved and appreciated by many individuals wanting to make a difference in the ideal body stigmas, other important concerns that this song impies become more disturbing. Instead of pushing each other down, we should value individuals for who they are instead of how they look. The illusion music videos show of living in a glamorous world based on your body is all a facade. There is much more to life than how your body looks.

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duaa7343-blog · 6 years ago

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"Religion is integrity"

Every month of Ramadan, Zain (a telecommunications company in the middle east) present to the viewers creative ideas, music in its commercials that relate to social events and news. This year, Zain brings a new sensitive and influential issue on the table, through a beautiful song that combine both Christians and Muslims together after the sad events that happened to the churches and mosques, working together hand by hand. This commercial is on the trend these days and it has touched the hearts of viewers and have stuck in everyone's mind and that is a result of some factors that create a strong effect. In this essay, I will argue that the factors that helped to make the commercial so popular in order to support this argument, I will first talk about the effect of the children. then, I will talk about the effect of the message. finally, will discuss the effect of the famous celebrities in the video.

First, they started of with an impressive saying that captures the viewer's attention: “let’s be like trees; different in form, leaves and branches yet embraced in our root.” Then, a christian choir standing next to muslim choir shown in the video and singing together. This considered a smart move because it found that song’s effect is much stronger than ordinary speech effect. In this case, this scene gives the viewer the sense of unity and similarities between the two groups because they standing next to each other and singing peacefully.

Then, it moves to the scene of two children, whose parents wish them to be good and blessed. The symbol of the cross is placed on the Christian girl in order to protect her, and the Muslim girl has the name of God for the same purpose. The two girls grow up to become friends, but then we observe here the influence of the racist people, when they speak with hateful words, and this is what sometimes happens in the reality and that can cause disagreements and can lead to make them separate.

However, the two girls chose not to make this disagreement to separate them. Fortunately, they decided to hold on to each other's hands and to continue their friendship and they didn’t allow others to control the feelings of love for each other. After that, two famous singers appeared, the Christian singer “Najwa Karam”from Lebanon and the Muslim singer “Sherine” from Egypt, who sing together that religion is integrity, peace and freedom of thoughts by saying “Never censor an idea by breaking a pen for ideas are alive just like women and men. Never please a master with a distorted fact.” here, in this scene, the video focused on the hand that tied when it’s writing to indicate that there are so many restrictions that restrict the people who try to express their opinions. In the next scene, we can see a quiet image behind the news reporter, but then it collapsed and many problems appeared in the behind, which indicates that news sometimes manipulate people, and it doesn’t always reflect the truth.

Using children in the commercial is an important success factor, because the viewer can relate to the idea that children are always the same, regardless of their language, religion or nationality. Children are children wherever they are. They love each other and don’t care about differences, unlike adults who make differences a barrier to love others and who believe that difference is a reason to hate.

The message of the commercial is another success factor. A message that touches people's feelings, that religions shouldn’t stop people from being and loving each other. Also, it attracts the viewer’s attention, especially as it includes events witnessed and heard by people. For example, in the scene: "Hello, Brother", actually is a reference to the man who was killed at the door of the mosque after he greeted the person who killed him with “Hello brother”, and that happened in the New Zealand attack on the mosque. So viewers can interact and engage with the events in the video. Also, The song presents the whole story with its problems, and in the end all the problems solved by the song. The strong message, music and colors make the viewer doesn’t pay as much attention to the quality of video shooting. Even if the filming isn’t great and contains lots of clips that have cut.

Have you ever trusted the quality of a product after you heard its name from a famous person? The last factor is using celebrities in the commercials. Celebrities have strong influences in how people accept new ideas. Celebrity branding is a good strategy to advertise any product because they have the ability to raise the position of the company and to build the trust and the awareness to the consumer. In this case, the presence of "Najwa" and "Sherine" consider a significant reason that this video spread quickly among the people and got a lot of viewers and make it more pleasing.

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duaa7343-blog · 6 years ago

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Animal Usage for the Beauty Industry

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Most women like to spend hours in front of the mirror, choosing between different types of eyeliners, eyelashes and lipsticks, and when they go for shopping they make sure to buy products that keep their skin looks bright and nice. However, have you ever question if the product that we consume daily can harm other innocent creatures and cause them to suffer their whole life? The video (Bright Eyes: End Cosmetics Testing on Animals) was an eye-opening video for me, because it led me to understand this kind of problem and search more about it. Although the video is short and does not contain a single word, it shows a tragic aspect most of us haven’t heard about before, which is the way that some factories use animals to test the safety of the cosmetic products, and how some famous brands don’t care about the lives of the creatures that live in peace, but instead they destroy their lives.

In this listicle I found five different articles that worth to share in order to understand this problem more broadly.

Beauty and the Beasts: The U.S. Should Ban Testing Cosmetics on Animals

Overall, this article talks about finding new ways to test the safety of the products rather than testing them on the animal.

The question: “How Many Rabbits Does Revlon Blind for Beauty’s Sake?” made me feel sad about how many animals that will suffer from blindness, or from pain and other problems on their health their whole lives, in order for humans to get products that are safe to use. However, this article gives some hope because it mentioned some projects that aim to make changes in the cosmetic industry, and also it gave me hope because many companies now begin to be aware of the problem and to make this act prohibited.

2. Are Mink Lashes Cruelty-Free? The Facts

Most of the people think that the retrieval process can be done while they are feeding and treating Mink gently, but that’s not true.

Shamefully, for the sake of beauty many people choose to wear fur and eyelashes that caused minks to suffer in a very painful process in order to splurge. Life has become a big faction show, and many people ignore the truth behind what are they wearing, or they think the fur is cruelty-free. What most of these people don’t know is that the fact is the animals don’t die when fur is taken from them and that process hurts badly when they are alive. To prove that point, there are many painful videos that can be found on the internet that showed this horrifying process to the poor animals.

3. 5 Surprising Reasons To Switch To Cruelty-Free Cosmetics

This article share 5 reasons of why people should choose the product that do not include animal abuse during manufacture. The reasons illustrated in this article including are that the cruelty-free products have less toxic and don’t need to be tested, the bushes that does not consist of animal hair does not have bacteria and thus be cleaner, to support the local brand business that have natural ingredients, the harmful effect on bunnies, dogs, and cats all of these animals that people consider them as pets. lastly, to encourage the companies to change this method.

All of the points are significant but I found the last point (The bottom line) is the most important reason because when we think about the effects of avoid buying from those companies that use the tests on animals, we will see that when people stop buying the products, companies will not find a way but to try to satisfy the consumer. It will do that by stopping the testing on animals in order to keep their consumers. This way will increase awareness of the others, especially when a company declares that its products are cruelty-free. This way will also save thousands of animals. Companies are very concerned that their reputation is good and ethical. That is why the image enhancement will be the most important thing that is being sought by companies.

4. These Beauty Brands Are Still Tested on Animals

The first step to solve this problem is to know what are the products and the brands that are conducting these experiments on animals. Knowing these products could help spreading the awareness of how cruel this practice is and then we will be able to avoid them. In this Article, “These Beauty Brands Are Still Tested on Animals”, the author speaks about a few products and brands that many people, including me, use regularly. For example, Avon, Benefit, Makeup Forever, Maybelline, Victoria's Secret, and many more.

To be honest, Although many people refuse to use animal violence, many people support these products because they do not see violence through the cover of the product. I was very surprised as to the amount of brands that conduct experiments on animals. I personally use Avon, Maybelline, and Benefit products such as eyeliners and makeup brushes. Now, after reading this article, I decided to look into other brands that do not affiliate with such experiments.

5. IT’S 2019—HOW MANY BEAUTY PRODUCTS ARE STILL TESTED ON ANIMALS?

It isn’t ethical and justifiable to kill around 500,000 animal every year in order to create beauty products. Therefore, we need a movement that does not ban these practices immediately, but instead sets up a day and a year to which these practices can not continue after. For example, California is one of the first states that stood against the testing on animals. In California is banning the sale of animal tested cosmetic products in 2020.

At the end, it is really hard to picture the future and know exactly what is going to happen. All that we know is that testing animals in order to create cosmetic products is hurting the industry more and more every single year. It is still possible to control and regulate these practices and I am very optimistic about finding a solution. Nowadays, we, humans, have so many issues to work on, and this issue is one of many which makes it hard to end it in a single day, month, or year. This is why we should start by moving forward regardless of the circumstances. A slow movement is better than no movement at all and we should act like this.

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