{"id":149042,"date":"2018-01-09T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-09T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/saudi-group-puts-out-fun-music-videos-about-new-laws\/"},"modified":"2018-05-09T14:27:25","modified_gmt":"2018-05-09T16:27:25","slug":"saudi-group-puts-out-fun-music-videos-about-new-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/saudi-group-puts-out-fun-music-videos-about-new-laws\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi group puts out fun music videos about new laws"},"content":{"rendered":"

S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 A positive attitude of embracing change in Saudi Arabia is the defining feature of Most of Us<\/em>, a music group whose latest two releases are garnering worldwide popularity.<\/p>\n

<<\/p>\n

Saudi Women Driving<\/em> has over 400,000 views on YouTube<\/em>. The song\u2019s a parody of Born to Be Wild <\/em>(1968, written by Mars Bonfire and made famous by Canadian group Steppenwolf) whose lyrics celebrate the fact that Saudi Arabia has \u2013 finally \u2013 cleared women to drive automobiles. Saudi Arabia was the only country in the world with such a prohibition in place, and the new law will go into effect next June.<\/p>\n

Over the phone from his home in Jeddah, frontman Hasan Hatrash told a bit of his story. He had the idea for the song as soon as he learned the news, and decided to jump at the occasion. He wrote the lyrics, recorded with the band and edited the video in two days\u2019 time, never guessing it\u2019d be this successful.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a great chance for us to celebrate the good news about our country with the entire world,\u201d he said. The group was criticized by the more conservative spectrum of Muslims, but Hatrash said the positive comments made it all worthwhile. \u201cOne girl wrote to us saying that as soon as she gets her driver\u2019s license, the first song she\u2019ll listen to in her car will be ours,\u2019 an emotional Hatrash said.<\/p>\n

<<\/p>\n

Another recent hit is Cinema in Saudi<\/em>, released after the end of a 35-year ban on movie theaters. Featuring music and lyrics by Hatrash, the video features fun shorts of the band interacting with characters and superheroes from memorable films from the past few decades, like Spiderman <\/em>and Star Wars<\/em>. \u201cThe idea was to have our favorite movie characters sing along with us, celebrating the return of cinema to our country,\u201d said Hatrash, who also produced the video.<\/p>\n

The four-piece group sings in English and Arabic. They play lighthearted, jazz and reggae-infused pop rock with social overtones and a positive outlook at all times. \u201cPop rock flies straight into people\u2019s hearts. They listen and have fun,\u201d said vocalist and guitarist Hasan Hatrash. The other band members are bassist Khalid Sharani, drummer Amro Hawari and keyboardist Amer Abbas.<\/p>\n

Background <\/strong><\/p>\n

Hatrash, 43, spent a few years in London, UK as a kid, from 1978 to 1984 \u2013 his father was a diplomat \u2013, during which time he was influenced by music greats of the likes of Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd and Abba. According to him, his repertoire is infused in one way or another by each and every musician that was part of the 1970s musical revolution.<\/p>\n

<<\/p>\n

Back in Saudi Arabia, growing up in a country where pop music was frowned upon made him a minority, and young people who played instruments or were interested in music weren\u2019t easy to come by. \u201cOn the one hand, it was terrible and frustrating, because music wasn\u2019t regarded as an art form by society, but on the other hand, oppression makes you more creative and driven to improve,\u201d said Hatrash, who taught himself music and video.<\/p>\n

He formed the band Most Of Us <\/em>towards the end of the 1990s, but up until two years ago they\u2019d only rehearse at home or play at friends\u2019 houses or private locations, since public musical performances were prohibited. \u201cSince king Salman ascended to the throne in 2016, you\u2019re allowed to perform at a few predetermined public places, with government authorization,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Despite the success on the media and the views, he said the band hasn\u2019t been invited to play shows, record albums or anything like that. \u201cWe\u2019re really glad about the popularity, but financially we have been in a pinch since the 2016 economic crisis. Music brings us hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quoting Gandhi, Hatrash said he believes \u201cwe are the change we want to see in the world.\u201d He\u2019s optimistic about the future and believes the new generation of Saudis is more open to change, more loving and understanding. Regarding what\u2019s to come for his band, he said \u201cWe will never stop.\u201d The next move is to keep writing and playing their own songs on a bevy of subjects. \u201cWe\u2019ll discuss whatever\u2019s interesting, and although we will write songs about social issues, we\u2019ll also write upbeat, joyous songs about life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Find out more: www.mostofus.rocks<\/p>\n

Watch the videos for Saudi Women Driving and Cinema in Saudi:<\/p>\n

<!–[{![cemb_11_3258.jpg” \/><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<!–[{![cemb_11_3260.jpg” \/><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum<\/strong><\/p>\n

Press Release<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Music group \u2018Most of Us\u2019 has earned recognition for songs about women getting permission to drive and the return of movie theaters to Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2305,"featured_media":192887,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail"],"wps_subtitle":"Music group \u2018Most of Us\u2019 has earned recognition for songs about women getting permission to drive and the return of movie theaters to Saudi Arabia.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2305"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}