| 释义 |
▪ I. rai
variant of ray n. Obs.
▪ II. rai, n.|raɪ|
[a. Algerian F. raï, of uncertain origin; perh. f. the dial. Arab. expression ha er-ray or (ya ray) lit. ‘here is the view’, ‘that's the thinking’ (cf. literary Arab. ra'y opinion, view), which is frequently found in the songs.]
A style of Algerian popular music, which combines Arabic and Algerian folk elements with western musical styles and whose lyrics often deal with themes (such as drinking or sexual permissiveness) considered taboo in Muslim society.
1986People Weekly (U.S.) 24 Feb. 29/3 Called ‘rai’ (pronounced ‘rye’), the sound is described as space-age Arabic folk music. Wonder will get an earful of rai when he performs at an Algerian youth festival in July. 1989Q Dec. 121/3 Fadela's last Mango album, You Are Mine, was raw rai—with the Algerian singer, a beat box and instrumental lines made up largely, one suspects, of synthesized battery acid. 1992New Perspectives Q. Spring 56/2 In its street form, rai operates in France to keep a community of former North African residents connected; in Algeria it operated for a time as a Berber nationalist medium against the Islamicizing, Arabizing currents. |