عمر العبداللات … الطابور (youtube.com)

This is a very well-known song in Jordan called الطابور or “The Line” in English. This song is played several times throughout the day along with military montages on all Jordanian TV stations as a sort of military/King-aggrandizing propaganda song/video. This song contains many Jordanian musical motifs such as the heavy use of the bagpipes (bagpipes are believed to have originated in the Middle East) and the darbuka-esque pattern played on military snare and bass drum. The singer and writer of this song, ‘Omar Al ‘Abdallat, is a patriotic icon of Jordan and has created many other songs which are played throughout Jordan during soccer games and other events (هز الملعب was used when Jordan was competing for the Asian Cup, playing every time a goal was scored). ‘Omar Al ‘Abdallat is the Jordanian patriotic song writer because of the Bedouin motifs that he uses throughout most of his music, an homage to Jordan’s historical and modern Bedouin roots. I chose this song because, during my time studying in Jordan, I heard it basically every morning while my host mom was watching TV. This song, for me, represents one of my biggest culture shock experiences as the song is openly propaganda meant to showcase the power of the Jordanian state and King. As an American, this song felt very strange because such direct and obvious government propaganda meant to display power is not as common in the US — especially considering the power is solely in the hands of Jordan’s King.