The Wu-Tang Clan?

Today, Jeremy and I took a petit taxi to work in the morning. We were discussing what type of music to show our different students when I mentioned that I was upset that they didn't like my Bobby Digital in Stereo CD. Bobby Digital, for the uninitiated, is a great old hip-hop album by a member of the Wu-Tang clan named Rza - he functioned as the producer and is arguably the best member of the group. Anyways, the taxi driver, a man in his early thirties, instantly perked up and remarked in French, "Rza? Wu-Tang Clan? They're my favorite rap group!"

We then spent the last five minutes of the ride rattling off the different members, talking about their various solo efforts, and picking favorites. He was a big fan of Ol' Dirty Bastard, but I stuck to my guns on Ghostface Killah, although we both agreed Cappadonna's side work (although he was more of a hanger-on) was pretty mediocre. The cab driver also went on about how he didn't like modern commercial American hip-hop.

Little situations like this do a good job of reinforcing how much Western culture has penetrated here. While the majority of the listeners on Radio Mosaique tune in for Justin Timberlake and Kelly Clarkson or Shakira, there's also a sizable group of people who are getting into slightly more esoteric (at least for here) music and movies. In addition to the French culture (which is less apparent here than I thought), such as sixteen-year old girl in my class who just loves Emile Zola, there's a lot of people who set themselves apart by liking punk rock or even the Beatles.

This is especially visible among the young students in some of my classes. The kids who are in the public, not the Access classes, are reasonably affluent and often go to French schools in Tunis. They often have family in France, Italy, Spain, or Germany, and some even consider themselves more Western than Tunisian. This generation as a whole is very much stuck betweens different worlds. Here, they're growing up with satellite TV, the internet, and all of the Western media they can consume at dirt-cheap prices - you can buy a pirated DVD here for around $2.