"But Arabic pop music as a genre is probably less "political" than it has ever been in modern times. The recordings and videos are increasingly the product of a homemade cultural syncretism that combines traditional Arab music with influences from all over, especially the United States, Europe and India. It is more experimental, less nationalistic, more erotic and more concerned with issues of personal desire and self-fashioning. In short, it is a great deal like all modern musical forms, including those in the West."
Paranoid pop: Music and modernization in the Arab world