Израильский рок: История и развитие

Type of rock music
Israeli rock (, Rok Yisra'eli) is rock music created by Israeli bands and singers.

Israel's initial attitude towards rock music was mixed, with the genre gaining popularity amongst the youth but receiving condemnation from the press and government, most notably in 1965 when the minister of education Hanoch Rinot prevented the funding for a possible concert in Ramat Gan by The Beatles, labeling their music as holding "no artistic value". Israeli musicians of the time believed that it was a fad that would soon pass. The first Israeli rock bands began performing in the mid 1960s in nightclubs and discos, first in Ramla and later on HaMasger Street in Tel Aviv. These bands mainly performed cover versions of popular rock songs by bands like The Beatles and The Shadows. Rock culture, in the social and political sense, was nowhere in sight. The High Windows, The Lions (aka The Lions of Juda), The Styles (aka Uzi and the Styles), The Fat and the Thins, The Blue Stars, The Goldstars, The New Stars, The Generals, The Monks, The Spiders, The Electric Stage, The Seventh Radiance, and The Sing Sing. In the euphoria that followed the Six Day War, the performing groups of the Israel Defense Forces rose in status with a steady stream of songs about victory, bereavement and loss. Rock became part of the alternative music scene that was played mostly in clubs such as "Hakarish" and "Calypso", formerly known as drug dens. which combined rock music and a unique sense of humor. The (consecutive 1st prize) winners of the 1976, 1977, and 1978 Chassidic Song Festival was the band that invented Jewish Rock, The Diaspora Yeshiva Band, who made several albums, had many hits (Hafachta, Malchutcha, Ivdu), and toured worldwide including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. At the end of the decade, singers who wrote and performed rock oriented music became very popular and very successful, including Shalom Hanoch (who previously collaborated with Arik Einstein), Ariel Zilber (formerly of Tamuz), Svika Pick (in combination with pop music and disco music), Efraim Shamir, Yitzhak Klepter (formerly of Kaveret and the Churchills) and Gary Eckstein.

During the 1980s a few rock bands became popular. Notable rock bands of the decade were The Click, Benzin, T Slam, and Mashina which became the most successful Israeli rock band of the decade.

In 1991 Israeli alternative rock bands and singers broke through, led by Rami Fortis, Berry Sakharof and Aviv Geffen, and young bands like Eifo HaYeled, The Elders of Zfat, Rockfour and Dr. Kasper's Rabbits Show who became very popular. An essential role in the rise of these bands and artists was the former Roxanne club in Tel Aviv, which hosted known artists and emerging artists of rock and alternative rock, exposing new bands to a growing audience. Since then, most of those bands have disbanded, but their members still continue to act in various music projects and mostly constitute the community of the Israeli music of the 2010s. Notable in the field of Glam metal and Heavy metal was the band "Stella Maris" from Haifa, which began performing in the early 1990s. Stella Maris later integrated in the mainstream Israeli music scene and its vocalist, Pavlo Rosenberg, launched a solo career of his own. Israel also developed a new style of rock/metal named Oriental metal, a crossover between death metal and doom metal, influenced by ancient Jewish traditions and the oriental culture both in lyrics and melody. Two mid 1990s crises led to the decline of that early 1990s rock boom: First was the Arad festival disaster of July 1995, after which the popularity of these events declined. Then the nationally traumatic murder of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in November that year, is largely considered to have shifted the whole cultural atmosphere of the country, and the prominence and success of the "kicking" rock of the early 1990s was replaced by more mellow directions. Yet, until the end of that decade, Israeli rock music kept its place as a central musical style, and important bands such as Hamachshefot and Monica Sex formed.

Although Israeli rock became less popular in the 2000s, being edged out by Israeli pop, many new rock artists and bands emerged. Among the most prominent Israel rock bands of the 2000s are Beit HaBubot, playing melodic rock which focused on acoustic guitar, and Synergia, which had a melodic nu metal sound. Among the other successful emerging Israeli rock bands and artists of this decade were Girafot, Sheygets, Habiluim, Yoni Bloch, Hadag Nahash, Shy Nobleman, Vaadat Charigim and many more. Many disbanded Israel rock bands began playing again during this decade, including T Slam, Mofa Ha'arnavot Shel Dr. Kasper, Mercedes Band, Eifo HaYeled, Monica Sex, Mashina, etc. At the end of the 2000s Mizrahi music gained massive popularity in Israel, further weakening the popularity of Israeli rock.

In the second decade of the 2000s, the creators of the classic rock style dwindled and songs that combine rock with pop and oriental music appeared. Prominent creators in this field are Dudu Tassa, who succeeds in combining the Iraqi folk music he grew up with at home with the alternative rock of the 90s, Keren Peles, who combines personal and exposed writing with rock arrangements alongside moving ballads, Hanan Ben Ari who broke out in this decade with rock songs of faith. Also, the well known rock artists continued to create Aviv Gefen, with the albums "Psifas" (2012) and "Sdakim" (2014), Mosh Ben Ari with the albums "Tistakel li Ba'enayim" (2011) and "As in Life". Avitar Banai released two successful albums in this decade "Yafa Kalevana" and "Leshonot Shel Esh", which were played a lot on the radio stations, and also had a successful collaboration together with Aviv Gefen in a joint show.