Al jeel

Al-jeel, meaning 'the generation', is the Egyptian popular music that emerged in the 1970s as a youth-oriented alternative to the classical tarab song. It shortens the long-form tarab structure into compact songs built on drum machines, synthesizers and Western pop, rock, disco and reggae grooves, while retaining maqam-based melody and Egyptian instruments such as the oud, qanun, ney and tabla. *Hamid El Shaeri* pioneered its polished studio sound in the 1980s, and *Amr Diab* carried it to pan-Arab and international success, making al-jeel the dominant Egyptian pop idiom of the cassette and video era.