What makes 'Mahraganat' songs popular hits all over the world? Do you think 'Mahraganat' hit songs are popular because they are great songs? If so, you need to think again.
Actually, Electro 'Mahragan' or 'Mahraganat' is a feature of Egyptian electronic dance music.
Mahraganat are a combination of popular 'shaabi' music (street music) played at weddings and electronic dance music.
In 2016, Nagham FM radio station banned 'Maharagan' songs from its programs, citing that they did not "match Egyptian customs and traditions".
Moreover, 'Mahragan' music was considered vulgar by some older and more conservative Egyptians. This is because of the social status of the performers and fans, the controversial topics and style of lyrics, use of obscenities, and personal style of the 'Mahragan' fans.
Egyptian music experts and researchers say that 'Mahraganat' hit songs become popular because listeners care about what other people think. For most listeners, the quality of the song is not as important.
A recent online study looked at how we choose our music. It showed that a song's popularity influences our choices. In other words, we like to listen to the music that our peers enjoy.
In the study, researchers gave a list of various unknown 'Mahraganat' songs to thousands of Arab and foreign millennials.
The contributors listened to some music of the songs and rated them.
Participants have one star to songs that they didn't like. They gave five stars to songs that they liked very much.
The researchers pided the participants into two groups. The first group saw only the 'Mahragan' song title and the name of the band.
They rated songs because the name of the song or the name of the band looked interesting. After listening to the song participants rated it with stars.
The second group of millennials received extra information. This group could also see the number of downloads for each song.
The songs with many downloads looked like they were very popular. Both Arab and foreign millennials thought that these songs were favorite with their peers.
However, the researchers made up the number of downloads for each song.
The songs showing the most downloads weren't really popular.
In fact, these songs weren't very good, according to Egyptian music experts.
One of the authors of the study, Yosry Hassan, an Egyptian poet, says: "People are faced with too many options and approaches, in this case of various songs.
Since you can't listen to all of them, a natural shortcut is to listen to what other people are listening to. I think that's what happens in the real world.
Yosry also says that people want to know what others are listening to. He says that people enjoy sharing 'Mahraganat' songs with their friends. So it isn't necessary for a popular 'Mahraganat' music to be of good quality. It is only necessary that some young people enjoy it.
These people influenced their friends, and soon, the popularity of the 'Mahraganat' spreads. Perhaps, becoming even a big hit.
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