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Khaliji or Khaleeji music (, "Persian Gulf music") is the music of Eastern Arabia and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, and it is a popular genre across the Arab world. It is traditionally characterized by heavy use of the rebab, oud and other string instruments such as the violin, the occasional use of habbān, and the inclusion of percussion instruments such as the mirwas, tablah, and duff drums. Khaliji music first started as a bedouin tradition with poetry sung by a tribe's shāʿir ("poet"), usually accompanied by a rebab, the lyrics dealt with tales of honor, love, camel riders, and glory warriors.
Khaliji music has roots going back more than 1,000 years, to the Islamic period, under the Umayyad dynasty and Abbasids in Baghdad, Iraq. In the modern era, Kuwaitis were the first commercial recording artists and composers in the Persian Gulf region; Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia pioneered the Khaliji genre into its modern form in the second half of the 20th century and soon became the focal point of the industry, but in recent years UAE has increased its impact on the Khaliji genre. The Khaliji scene mainly consists of by Iraqi, Emirati, Kuwaiti, Bahraini, and Saudi artists today. Along with its main Arabian style, Khaliji music can also sometimes incorporate few elements of East African along with the genre such as Liwa, Moradah, and Sawt reflecting the region's ethnic history.
The period between 1980s and mid 2000, saw a lot of local Khaleeji/Bandari bands singing in mixed Khaleeji and Bandari music style in both Persian and Arabic (southern/gulf dialects), most notable among these being the Bahraini Sultaneez band and the Kuwaiti Miami band, among others. This Persian Arabic mixed Khaleeji style has been reintroduced, modernized and continued by modern younger artists such as Emirati-Iranian singer Ahllam.
In recent years, a new Independent scene has started to emerge in Arab states of the Persian Gulf that aims to challenge the sociocultural norms of modern Khaleeji society through a sound that's distinct from traditional Khaliji music, the scene has been coined as "Alternative Khaliji" by Kuwaiti-American musician +Aziz.
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