ABSTRACT

Chapter Six frames metal, rap, and electro through the Tunisian debates on religion and the national identity. It opens with an analysis of religion and irreligiosity within Tunisian scenes: Islam, the country’s main religion, is here treated not as an essential element of a fixed cultural identity, but rather has a dynamic field of debates. The section focuses on the very different ways in which religious debates influence metal and rap. The second section portrays the debate on Tunisian national identity, and the roles of musicians in it. Members of the three scenes elaborate cultural products that “play” with the ambiguities of Tunisian culture, and thus refract the contradictions of any fixed vision of a single national identity. At the same time, they struggle to align their use of local symbols (often with a reflexive, market-oriented perspective) with the global codes of the youth cultures to which they belong.