The Delicate Art of the Halal Playlist

I thought there might be some value in sharing some insights from an interesting recent project, in which my company RadioMogul was tasked with building a Halal music playlist for a client.

First let me say that I am by no means an expert in the field. I am not Muslim, though I have Muslim family, and have shared food, laughter and homes with people throughout the Arabic-speaking world.

In spite of my extensive travels, I was unaware until this particular project that Halal was a concept that applied to anything other than food.

One trusted Muslim friend and family member advised me of one point before starting. I should understand very clearly that, when referencing almost anything in Islam, nothing applies in general. That is to say, there is such diversity of thought in Islam that one could almost never hope to capture even a majority of where Muslims stood on any particular matter.

What Does “Halal” Mean

“Halal” is an Arabic word meaning lawful or permitted. In most instances, the concept applies to food — meat (other than pork, which is forbidden) must come from an animal that was killed according to specific practices, and other foods such as rice, pasta or bread cannot have been prepared with products such as alcohol, lard, or gelatin.

But the idea applies to much more than food. For example, I learned that there is a Halal way of doing business. Widely speaking, from a business ethics point of view, it requires that a good Muslim business person should use “best practices”, and be honest and upfront in dealings. I can get on board with that.

Is Music Halal?

This friend also told me an interesting story to provide some context. He’s a huge music lover, and he comes from an area of Islam that celebrates every major occasion with music. He recounted an incident when, as a boy, at a cultural gathering, an older man caught him listening to music and told him that no good Muslim should ever be listening to music. It was, he said, “Haram”, which I have since learned is the opposite of Halal (it means prohibited), and applies in equal measure as Halal in many aspects of Islamic life.

So, in this gentleman’s view, there could be no such thing as a Halal playlist, because music itself was not Halal. Given what music has added to my own life, I had never even considered that someone might actually feel that way. However, I respect that that is a strong conviction held by some, and I mean no offence to anyone who holds that view.

Why Does Some Music Sound So ‘Foreign’?

That said, anyone who has savoured the fare in a shawarma/doner/kebab shop pretty much anywhere in the world knows that there is a specific “sound” coming from the speakers that often serves as the soundtrack to the ordering and/or dining experience.

To those unfamiliar with it, this music can seem quite exotic, strange, even jarring. After all, the music is sung in an unfamiliar language, with unfamiliar instruments, and has an unfamiliar melodic and rhythmic structure.

To someone brought up on "Western" music, Arabic music in fact represents, to borrow a term from one of my favourite books (This Is Your Brain On Music), an entirely different “schema.” A schema, cognitively speaking, is a framework within which the brain can extract and store elements common to multiple situations. Music outside the framework is therefore processed by the brain in a substantially different way than music within that framework. In other words, it doesn’t just “sound” foreign, our brains actually make it “feel” foreign.

Playlist Considerations

To build the playlist, we worked with an Arabic-speaking artist and a local deejay, both of whom attend their fair share of weddings and other cultural events in the local Islamic community. We’ve had to walk a fine line to ensure that all the concepts of a specific form of Halal were adhered to. For example, this particular form was not allowed to contain references to intoxication, overt sexuality, or adultery.

That may at first seem restrictive, but it’s not actually all that different from some other clients of ours, whose primary concern is not wanting to offend their customers. Not surprisingly, there was lots of back and forth with the client in this case, but that just makes it that much sweeter when you finally get it right — and we did.

Music & Culture

Funny thing happened along the way — I became a huge fan of the music. The playlist is filled to the brim with joyous, rhythmic, complex, and often very catchy music. Naturally, I nicked a bunch of the music for my own collection, and now regularly have a number of these wonderful songs popping up in my personal playlists. Never thought I’d have Arabic songs stuck in my head, but I do! 

I suppose I should have known all along that I was going to like it. Music is as rich as its culture, and I’ve spent many a fine afternoon and evening sipping mint tea on a balcony overlooking a bustling souk.

In fact, the whole project re-affirmed my long-held belief, that to appreciate another’s music is to better understand another’s culture.

And I’m all in for better cross-cultural understanding.

P.S. If you want to hear the (still-evolving) playlist, send me a direct message or hit me up in the comments and I’ll send you a link.