Imported sound, Imported Style

The Influence of Jaroslav Jakubovič on Israeli popular music 1981-1991

Abstract

This study explores the influence of saxophone player and musical director, Jaroslav Jakubovič, on Israeli 1980s pop-rock music, by “importing” the saxophone timbre and production style made popular in the US. I demonstrate that the saxophone timbre, as manifested in 1980s music world-wide, represents America’s cultural influence on Israeli music, leaning on two central claims: (1) for a while, the saxophone was an integral cog in what Regev refers to as ‘aesthetic cosmopolitanism’, the ethnonational cultural uniqueness, expressed through the global resonance of rock music, and (2) that the saxophone timbre of the 1980s was introduced in Israel mainly as a specific case of the American cultural influence, with Jakubovič acting as a mediator. The study demonstrates how a unique historical and professional convergence enabled the transfer of an American cultural commodity that reshaped Israel’s musical landscape during the 1980s.