The folk music of Jordan can be distinguished from that of its neighboring countries like Syria and Saudi Arabia by its strong Bedouin influence. Rural Zajal songs, with improvised poetry played with a Rabab and reed pipe ensemble accompanying is popular .
Popular music
The musician and composer Sameer Baghdadi, the Bedouin singer Omar Al-Abdullat, and Diana Karazon, winner of the Arab version of Pop Idol, are perhaps Jordan's biggest stars, known for his patriotic song "Hashemi, Hashemi" [3]. Other well-known Jordanian musicians are Qamar Badwan, who won the golden prize in the 2000 Cairo Song Festival, percussionist Hani Nassir, the pianist, and composer Khalid Asad. A new age group called Rum, lead by Tareq Al Nasser has been gaining regional and international popularity. Sign of Thyme on the other hand has been gaining Regional popularity with its Oriental-Jazz-Ethnic Fusion, the band has been active since 2004 and till this day produced 2 albums. Many Jordanian singers constantly use Western melodies and fuse it with Middle Eastern music bringing a fresh new generation of music. The controversial female singer, Malak El Nasser, known for her extremely seductive video clips is another popular Jordanian singer.
In Amman, the capital of Jordan, there has been a movement of alternative music in the last two decades. Rock bands that mix western and eastern influences are continuously becoming more popular. Ethereal was a famous oriental rock band early this decade, they were the first band in Jordan to have a large base of fans, their music was played on local radios. They ranked first when they presented Jordan in the European youth festival in Turkey in the year 1999. At the present there are some popular bands in Jordan such as Jadal and Illusions - who are famous for their pure classic rock style. with many bands reaching international audiences such as Ala'a Tarawneh who first performed a concert in PSUT ( Princess Sumaya University for Technology ) in their annual Open day and cover Alternative/Rock hits.
Jordan is also known to have a fairly large underground heavy metal scene that is always erroneously connected to Satanism causing people to attack it. Examples of Jordanian metal bands are Tyrant Throne (Death metal), Blind vision (Progressive metal), Bilocate (Doom/Death metal), Esodic ,Spade (Thrash) and Ajdath who currently reside in Poland. Other bands, like Augury (Black metal) and Darkcide (Doom/Death metal), had to stop due to the lack of support or band members leaving the country.
One of the most important musicians in Jordan are the Faqir family which extends for more than 100 years. Jordan's western radio station, Play 99.6, works towards exposing new local artists, including many western pop singers such as Humam Ammari, Al'a Ayyoub, and Walid Karadsheh.
The thriving Indie rock scene was achieved thanks to artists such as Kais Khoury, Ibrahim Baggili, Hani Mitwasi and Yousef Kawar, as well as the Cowboys from Jordan; a band managed by Yousef Kawar himself. Other notable genres in Jordan are Hip Hop; which was popularized through DJ Shadia, who was hailed as resident DJ for the lofty club Nai, as well as a host on Play 99.6. DJ Shadia had previously opened for global stars such as Sean Paul and Massari. Other popular Hip Hop artists include LSP as well as MC Niz-r.
As of recent times, Jordan's Trance and electronic music scenes are rising rapidly within Jordanian youth, and techno and house have become staples in the musical tastes in Jordan. This was helped by the rapid rise of talented DJs such as Bee Bee and DJ Flava, as well as heavy airplay of trance songs on Jordanian radio channels. Many raves and underground techno gatherings occur, and electronic music is currently reaching number one status of music genre in Jordan; such a status was reached due to DJs playing continuously throughout Amman's many nightspots, a few notable DJs were Ali Saadi and Zafer Saadi, DJ Exoda, and the Hip Hop superstar, DJ Shadia. This was all achieved in a very short time frame starting from the 21st century.
