Music of the Maghreb

North Africa has contributed to popular music, especially Egyptian classical and el Gil, Algerian raï, and Moroccan chaabi. The broad region is sometimes called the Maghreb (excluding Egypt), and the term Maghrebian music is in use. For a variety of reasons Libya does not have as extensive a popular tradition as its neighbors. Folk music, however, abounds, despite frequent condemnation and suppression from governments, and exists in multiple forms across the region—the Berbers, Sephardic Jews, Tuaregs and Nubians, for example, retain musical traditions with ancient roots.

Andalusian music is especially influential, and is played in widely varying forms across the region. This music was imported from Andalusia in the 15th century, after Spain expelled the Moors from that province. The Spanish conquest of the historically Muslim Iberian peninsula had been going on for some time, and had the result of moving a large number of Iberian Muslims, who were themselves descended from people from across the Mediterranean, into North Africa. These people brought with them a vibrant tradition that had arisen as a fusion of various kinds of Muslim music from Baghdad, Istanbul, Egypt and elsewhere. The most well-known derivatives of this style are al-âla in Morocco, nuubaat and related styles in Algeria and malouf in Tunisia.

Out of all the North African countries, Algerian popular music may be best-known abroad. Raï, a style of urban popular music developed in early 20th century Oran, has been famous in Europe, especially France (which has a large Algerian population) since the late 1980s. The music of the Berber Kabyle people and chaabi are both also renowned throughout the country, and in France.

...
Wikipedia