Popularity and Musical Style
Argov was among the first singers to achieve commercial and nationwide success in the sphere of Middle Eastern-Mediterranean/oriental (Mizrahi)-style music, despite the fact that his music was not mainstream at the time, and radio stations gave predominance to pop music from overseas. Some believe that the great popularity of Argov and other Mizrahi singers of his time, among them Avihu Medina, Haim Moshe and Margalit Tzan'ani, was a response to the widespread sense among Mizrahi Jews in Israel that they were being discriminated against by the Ashkenazi hegemony.
The themes of Argov's songs were similar to those of American country music: love, heartache, disappointments, joy, addiction. He is considered a prodigy by many in the music business. Arranger and conductor Nancy Brandes, who musically directed many of his recordings, described him as a musical genius: He could make perfect recordings in one take, and when asked to do another take, was able to sing a totally different version just as perfectly. Argov had a remarkable talent for improvisation that respected the spirit of the song while allowing him to leave his personal mark.
Read more about this topic: Zohar Argov
Famous quotes containing the words popularity and, popularity, musical and/or style:
“A large part of the popularity and persuasiveness of psychology comes from its being a sublimated spiritualism: a secular, ostensibly scientific way of affirming the primacy of “spirit” over matter.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)
“The popularity of that baby-faced boy, who possessed not even the elements of a good actor, was a hallucination in the public mind, and a disgrace to our theatrical history.”
—Thomas Campbell (1777–1844)
“I think no woman I have had ever gave me so sweet a moment, or at so light a price, as the moment I owe to a newly heard musical phrase.”
—Stendhal [Marie Henri Beyle] (1783–1842)
“The old saying of Buffon’s that style is the man himself is as near the truth as we can get—but then most men mistake grammar for style, as they mistake correct spelling for words or schooling for education.”
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)