Happy ROSH!!! May You Have a Happy and Healthy New Year!

Rosh Hashanah begins tonight. For those who are not in the know, it’s the Jewish New Year, and, like any other new year from any other culture, it’s a time for celebration. We celebrate the joys of life, both great and small.

This blog post will be celebrating a joy of life somewhere in the middle of great and small, that being the fact that Jewish holiday music has evolved into something at least moderately entertaining. From originals to parodies of pop songs, Jewish music has developed from….hmmm..from things shockingly not that good, to things that, are, at the very least, fun.

Take, for example, the Brothers Zim.

Sol and his brother...errr, i don't know his name, but he has a Jewfro and a Magnum PI moustache.

Seriously. Take them. Take them far away. Somewhere really far away. and leave them there. I do not want to know where they are, I just want to know they’re somewhere that they can never escape from. Like New Jersey. or a convention of Harry Potter Fans. just, take them away.

Ok. I mean, the Brothers Zim weren’t the worst musicians ever. They’re actually pretty decent singers. But to me, they just represent the schmaltz and cheese of Jewish music, a music that forever seemed stuck in EZ Listening mode, Jewish versions of songs on some 1970s radio station that had a moniker like “EZ 104 – Your Light Listening Station” or “94.9 Heart – Music That Soothes Your Soul.”

I think it took us Jews longer to start recording entertaining holiday music than it did Moses to find his way out of the desert.

Most of the contemporary music is silly and light-hearted. Often, it’s a bit too much over the top, but it’s still entertaining.  And there are a LOT of inside Jewish jokes and humor, but that’s probably what makes it really fun.

The songs also cross every genre from punk to hip hop to dance to pop to everything in between. Let’s kick it off with some Hebrew Crunk! Dip the apple in the honey, oh yeah!

ok, yea, that was a bit silly and over the top. This one though – from Prodezra Beats – is the real deal. Born Reuben Formey in Savannah, Georgia, Prodezra left his home state after what he calls “some bad decisions”, moved left for Yeshiva in New Jersey, and ultimately Jerusalem.

Prodezra is solid hop-hop. No jokes, and no more gimmicky at this point than Matisyahu, the well-known orthodox reggae/hip-hop superstar.

Good shite, right?

Now switching gears, let’s have some fun with the Shlomones (rhymes with “Ramones”) – sure it’s light-hearted and fun, but it’s a really entertaining take on the classic “Blitzkrieg Bop”, albeit with a Rosh Hashanah bend.

Punk not your bag? How about some super sweet sugary pop? (ok, this song does not do it for me. i dig her voice, but it’s just not a style of music i can dig. Still, there’s no denying it’s part of the changing face of Jewish music, especially Jewish holiday music).

see what i mean? super sweet. i have cavities now. Thanks, RHGirl! oy!

Now we’re going to start getting to the meat of the matter, and what is probably the biggest sub-genre of Jewish music, that being Jewish-themed parodies/covers of well-known pop,rock, and dance songs. This one (which actually came out last year) is a pretty fun DIY video, down to the not-terribly well done lip synching.

See, wasn’t that fun? not terribly brilliant in any sort of way, but certainly a solid representative of the genre.

This one is…a but quirky. It’s a take on a Shakira track, and the video seems straight out of 1980s silliness. But there is a cameo by some handmade “Angry Birds” (and Green Pigs too!), so that gives it bonus points for me. Even so, this song probably went #1 in Israel, which has some weird, weird musical tastes.

Now, we’re getting to the heavy hitters. The first – the Maccabeats – are arguably the superstars of this genre. In less than a year, the video for their Channukah song “Candelight” has had nearly six million hits. Yep, 6 million. The Brothers Zim would kill for that number. Here’s their Rosh Hashanah entry for this year, a take on OneRepublic’s “Good Life”.

i don’t think it’s nearly as good as “Candelight”, but with their vocal chops and sense of humor, you can see why the Maccabeats have done quite well for themselves.

It’s looking like the biggest holiday song for Rosh this year is going to be this take on LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem”. It has all the keys for success in this genre – a catchy video, a familiar tune, fairly entertaining lyrics (Three times a day I’m shucklin‘, shucklin’, shucklin’) and most of all, some damned good break-dancing. No joke, Jews can break dance!

Ok, I realize these songs aren’t Grammy winners, and they’re not likely to be remembered in 25 years. But for a genre that has long suffered, they are a huge step up.

(bonus Maccabeats “Candlight” track)