Saudi Arabia's Underground Music Scene: Indie Artists, Private Events, and the Evolution From Prohibition to Creative Freedom

Executive Summary

Before Soundstorm, before Riyadh Season, before the General Entertainment Authority existed, Saudi Arabia had a music scene. It was underground, unofficial, and largely invisible to the outside world, but it was real, passionate, and remarkably creative. For decades, Saudi musicians created, performed, and shared music through private gatherings, underground events, SoundCloud uploads, and social media channels, building a vibrant culture that persisted despite — and in some ways because of — the prohibition on public music performance.

Understanding Saudi Arabia’s underground music scene is essential for understanding the Kingdom’s current music revolution. The artists who emerged from the underground — producers like Cosmicat, rappers like Asayel Slay, DJs like Dish Dash, and dozens of others — did not appear from nowhere when entertainment restrictions were lifted in 2017. They had been creating, experimenting, and developing their craft for years, often in conditions that required extraordinary dedication and ingenuity. The underground scene created the talent, the aesthetic sensibilities, and the audience demand that made the post-2017 music explosion possible.

The Prohibition Era (Pre-2017)

Legal and Social Framework

Saudi Arabia’s restrictions on music were never absolute — the Kingdom had a rich tradition of vocal and instrumental music, and recorded music was widely consumed in private — but public performance was effectively prohibited for decades. The religious establishment’s position that music was haram (forbidden) or at minimum makruh (discouraged) influenced social norms, government policy, and the legal framework governing entertainment.

The practical effect was:

The enforcement of music restrictions varied by region, era, and circumstance. Jeddah and the Eastern Province were generally more permissive than Riyadh and the Najd heartland. Wedding celebrations often included music and dancing that would not have been tolerated in other contexts. And the mutawa’een (religious police), who were responsible for enforcing social norms, gradually reduced their enforcement activity over the 2010s before being formally curtailed in 2016.

The Underground Response

Saudi musicians responded to these restrictions with creativity and determination:

Private gatherings (istirahat): The istiraha — a private rest house or gathering space — became the primary venue for live music in Saudi Arabia. Groups of musicians and music enthusiasts would gather in private istirahat for jam sessions, listening parties, and informal concerts. These gatherings, while technically private and therefore outside the scope of entertainment restrictions, were the beating heart of Saudi music culture.

Bedroom production: The democratization of music production technology — affordable DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations), software synthesizers, and USB audio interfaces — enabled Saudi producers to create professional-quality music from home studios. SoundCloud, which launched in 2008, became the primary distribution platform for Saudi underground producers, who uploaded tracks under pseudonyms to avoid social stigma and potential legal complications.

Social media channels: YouTube, Instagram, and later Snapchat provided channels for Saudi musicians to share their work, build audiences, and connect with like-minded creators. Several Saudi artists built substantial followings (100,000+ followers) through social media without ever performing publicly.

Study abroad exposure: Saudi students studying abroad — particularly in the US, UK, and Canada — were exposed to music scenes, concert culture, and production techniques that they brought back to the Kingdom. The Saudi government’s extensive scholarship program (which sent hundreds of thousands of students abroad) inadvertently created a generation of music-literate young Saudis who returned home with the skills, tastes, and ambitions to build a music scene.

Regional connections: Saudi musicians maintained connections with music scenes in neighboring countries — particularly the UAE, Bahrain, and Kuwait — where entertainment restrictions were less severe. Dubai’s club scene, Bahrain’s bar culture, and Kuwait’s more permissive entertainment environment provided performance and networking opportunities for Saudi artists who could travel.

Key Underground Genres

Electronic Music

Electronic music was the natural genre for Saudi Arabia’s underground scene. It could be produced in bedroom studios, distributed anonymously online, and consumed through headphones or private gatherings without the visibility of live band performance. The Saudi electronic scene developed several distinctive approaches:

Desert techno: A style that incorporated desert imagery, Arabic scales, and the atmospheric quality of the Najd landscape into techno and house structures. Producers in this style drew on the ambient sounds of desert environments — wind, sand, space — to create a distinctively Saudi electronic aesthetic.

Khaleeji bass: A fusion of Khaleeji (Gulf) rhythmic patterns with bass music, trap, and electronic production techniques. This style — pioneered by producers like Dish Dash — created dance music rooted in Gulf musical traditions that could fill a dancefloor at a private event or a future club.

Ambient/experimental: Saudi producers exploring ambient, drone, field recording, and experimental electronic music. This niche scene produced some of the underground’s most artistically significant work, though commercial appeal was limited.

Hip-Hop and Rap

Saudi hip-hop developed almost entirely underground, with artists recording in home studios and distributing through YouTube and SoundCloud. The scene was shaped by:

• Arabic language rap: Artists rapping in Saudi Arabic dialect about life in the Kingdom, social pressures, generational conflict, and aspirations
• Bilingual artists: Rappers who code-switched between Arabic and English, reflecting the bilingual reality of educated Saudi youth
• Female rappers: Artists like Asayel Slay, whose “Bint Mecca” (Girl from Mecca) went viral in 2020 with more than 10 million YouTube views, challenging both gender norms and the stigma around Saudi music participation

Indie and Alternative

A smaller indie/alternative scene developed around acoustic guitar, singer-songwriter traditions, and rock-influenced music. This scene was centered primarily in Jeddah and the Eastern Province, where cultural diversity and expatriate influence created audiences for non-electronic, non-Arabic music.

The Transition (2017-2020)

The Opening

The establishment of the General Entertainment Authority in 2016 and the subsequent lifting of entertainment restrictions in 2017-2018 created a seismic shift for the underground scene. Artists who had created music in secret or semi-secret suddenly had the opportunity to perform publicly, seek official support, and build legitimate careers.

The transition was not instantaneous or universal. Many underground artists were initially cautious, uncertain whether the opening would be sustained or reversed. Some continued to operate under pseudonyms. Others embraced the new environment enthusiastically, applying for GEA performance licenses and booking their first public shows.

First Public Performances

The period from 2018-2020 saw the first public performances by many underground artists who had been creating music for years:

• Cosmicat, who had been DJing privately and online since her teenage years, performed at the first Soundstorm in 2019 as one of the festival’s Saudi artist showcases
• Multiple hip-hop artists performed at GEA-sanctioned events for the first time, transitioning from YouTube-only distribution to live performance
• Indie musicians who had played only at private gatherings booked their first cafe and venue shows in Jeddah and Riyadh

The transition period revealed both the depth of talent that the underground had developed and the infrastructure gaps that needed to be addressed — venues, sound equipment, lighting, promoters, managers, and all the professional support structures that more established music markets take for granted.

The Current Scene (2024-2026)

Evolution and Fragmentation

The Saudi underground scene has evolved significantly since the entertainment opening. Several dynamics are at work:

Mainstreaming: The most commercially viable underground artists have been absorbed into the mainstream music infrastructure — signed by MDLBeast Records, booked at Soundstorm, and featured in GEA-supported programming. This mainstreaming has brought financial stability and audience growth but has also raised questions about artistic independence and authenticity.

Continued underground: Despite the opening of the public entertainment sector, a vibrant underground scene continues to exist. Artists working in genres too experimental, provocative, or niche for mainstream programming continue to operate through private events, online distribution, and unofficial venues. The underground has not disappeared — it has shifted to occupy the space between what the mainstream accommodates and what artists want to express.

New generation: A new generation of Saudi musicians — many of whom were children when entertainment restrictions were lifted — is entering the scene with different reference points and expectations than the pioneers. These younger artists have grown up with public concerts, streaming, and music education as normal parts of their environment, and their creative output reflects this different foundational experience.

Venue Culture

The development of venue culture has been one of the most significant changes for the underground scene:

The emergence of licensed music cafes and small venues has created a performance circuit that did not exist before 2017, allowing underground artists to play regularly without the scale or formality of festival bookings. This venue ecosystem — still small by international standards — provides the grassroots performance infrastructure that is essential for artist development and audience building.

Online and Digital

The digital dimension of the Saudi underground scene remains strong:

Social media — particularly Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat — remains the primary discovery and promotion channel for underground artists. TikTok has been particularly transformative, enabling Saudi artists to achieve viral moments that can translate into mainstream attention. Several underground artists have transitioned to mainstream recognition through TikTok virality, with tracks accumulating millions of views and attracting label attention.

Community and Culture

Support Networks

The Saudi underground music community has developed informal support networks that compensate for the institutional infrastructure available in more established music markets:

Producer collectives: Groups of producers who share knowledge, collaborate on tracks, provide feedback on works-in-progress, and collectively promote each other’s releases. These collectives — often organized through WhatsApp groups and Discord servers — serve as informal mentorship networks for emerging producers.

Event organizers: A community of independent event organizers who produce private and semi-private music events, providing performance opportunities for underground artists outside the GEA-licensed mainstream. These organizers operate in a gray area between private gatherings and public events, navigating the boundaries of entertainment regulation with varying degrees of formality.

Equipment sharing: In a market where professional music equipment is expensive and difficult to source, underground musicians have developed equipment-sharing arrangements, lending synthesizers, controllers, microphones, and other gear through trust networks.

Cultural Production

The underground scene has generated cultural production beyond music itself:

• Visual art: Album artwork, event flyers, and digital art created by Saudi graphic designers and visual artists who are part of the music community
• Fashion: Street fashion, merchandise, and personal style associated with specific music scenes
• Language: Slang, terminology, and linguistic creativity that reflects the underground’s position at the intersection of Arabic tradition and global youth culture
• Literature: Poetry, lyrics, and written work that explores the themes of the underground experience — secrecy, freedom, identity, and the tension between tradition and modernity

Challenges and Tensions

Authenticity vs. Commercialization

The central tension in the Saudi underground scene mirrors a dynamic familiar from music scenes worldwide: the tension between underground authenticity and mainstream commercialization. Artists who built their credibility in the underground face criticism from their original communities when they accept corporate sponsorships, sign with major labels, or perform at government-backed events.

This tension is particularly acute in Saudi Arabia, where the line between underground and mainstream was drawn not by market dynamics but by government policy. The artists who created music under prohibition have a relationship to their work that is fundamentally different from artists who began their careers in the post-opening environment.

Content Boundaries

Even in the post-2017 environment, Saudi artists operate within content boundaries that are more restrictive than those in most international music markets. Lyrics addressing certain topics — religion, politics, sexuality — remain sensitive, and artists must navigate these boundaries carefully. The underground provides a space where these boundaries can be tested and explored, but not without risk.

Gender Dynamics

Female participation in the Saudi music scene has expanded dramatically since 2017, but gender-related challenges persist. Female artists face additional social pressures — family expectations, public scrutiny, and cultural norms that make public performance more socially complex for women than for men. The underground has historically provided a space where female artists could develop their skills and build communities with less public visibility, though the post-2017 opening has enabled many to move into public performance.

Future Outlook

The Saudi underground music scene exists in a paradoxical position: it was created by prohibition, yet it continues to thrive in an era of official entertainment support. Its future will be shaped by several factors:

• The continued expansion of licensed venues and performance opportunities, which will absorb some underground artists into the mainstream
• The extent to which government content regulations constrain artistic expression, which will determine the size and character of the space the underground occupies
• The development of music education and professional infrastructure, which will increase the talent pool and raise production quality
• Generational change, as artists who grew up without entertainment restrictions bring different perspectives and expectations

Whatever form it takes, the underground will remain an essential part of Saudi Arabia’s music ecosystem — the space where experimentation happens, where boundaries are tested, and where the next generation of Saudi music is incubated before it emerges into the light.

The Underground-to-Mainstream Pipeline

Success Stories

Several of Saudi Arabia’s most prominent music figures trace their origins directly to the underground scene, demonstrating the pipeline’s effectiveness:

Cosmicat (Nouf Sufyani): Saudi Arabia’s first female DJ, now signed to MDLBEAST Records and a regular performer at Soundstorm, began her career DJing at private gatherings and sharing mixes on SoundCloud. Her transition from underground anonymity to international festival stages — including performances at international events beyond Saudi Arabia — exemplifies the underground-to-mainstream pathway that the entertainment opening has enabled.

Dish Dash: The Saudi electronic duo pioneered the “Khaleeji bass” fusion sound in underground settings before becoming one of the most recognized Saudi electronic acts. Their music — which combines Gulf rhythmic patterns with contemporary bass music production — was developed entirely within the underground before finding mainstream audiences through festival bookings and MDLBEAST collaborations.

The Jeddah Jazz Scene: The Jeddah Jazz Festival’s core community of performers emerged almost entirely from private jam sessions and expatriate compound gatherings. Musicians who had been playing jazz in living rooms and istirahat for years suddenly had public stages, creating a jazz scene that appeared to emerge from nowhere but in reality had been developing underground for decades.

The Pipeline’s Limitations

The underground-to-mainstream pipeline, while functional, has significant limitations:

Genre bias: The mainstream Saudi entertainment ecosystem favors certain genres — EDM, pop, Arabic pop — and provides limited pathways for artists working in genres that do not fit these commercial categories. Experimental electronic, noise, post-punk, and other niche genres remain largely confined to the underground, regardless of artistic quality.

Gatekeeping: The transition from underground to mainstream typically requires endorsement by established gatekeepers — MDLBEAST, the GEA, major Saudi promoters — whose artistic and commercial criteria may not align with the underground’s creative values. Artists who are unwilling or unable to meet these gatekeepers’ expectations remain underground by default.

Sustainability: Even artists who successfully transition to mainstream visibility may find that the mainstream does not provide sustainable careers. The Saudi music industry’s reliance on festival bookings and seasonal programming creates feast-or-famine income patterns that make full-time music careers difficult. Many former underground artists maintain day jobs alongside their music careers, a reality that limits the time and energy available for creative development.

Impact on Saudi Cultural Identity

Music as Identity Formation

The underground music scene has played a significant role in Saudi cultural identity formation for the generation that came of age during the prohibition era. For many young Saudis, engagement with underground music — whether as creators, listeners, or community members — provided a framework for identity construction that was distinct from both traditional Saudi culture and the imported Western culture available through media.

The underground scene created spaces where Saudi youth could explore questions of identity, modernity, tradition, and belonging through musical and cultural creativity. The experience of building a music culture in defiance of official restrictions fostered a sense of agency and self-determination that has influenced the broader cultural attitudes of the post-2017 generation.

Heritage and Innovation

The underground scene’s relationship to Saudi traditional music is complex and evolving. Some underground artists explicitly reject traditional musical forms as conservative or outdated, positioning themselves in opposition to cultural traditions they associate with the prohibition era. Others — particularly in Jeddah’s diverse cultural environment — have embraced traditional elements, incorporating Hejazi rhythms, Arabic scales, and traditional instruments into contemporary electronic, hip-hop, and indie productions.

The most musically significant work emerging from the underground often bridges this divide, creating sounds that are simultaneously rooted in Saudi musical heritage and informed by global contemporary music. This bridging function — connecting tradition and innovation, local and global, past and future — may be the underground scene’s most important cultural contribution. As the Saudi Music Commission and Ministry of Culture invest in developing the Kingdom’s music ecosystem, the underground’s role as a laboratory for cultural experimentation becomes increasingly valuable.

Regional Connections

The Gulf Underground Network

Saudi Arabia’s underground scene does not exist in isolation but is connected to underground music communities across the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. Musicians in Dubai, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Oman share artistic interests, collaborate on productions, and occasionally perform at each other’s private events, creating a regional underground network that transcends national borders.

Bahrain: Bahrain’s more permissive entertainment environment has historically provided performance opportunities for Saudi underground artists. The short causeway crossing between the Eastern Province and Bahrain enabled Saudi musicians to play at Bahraini venues, clubs, and events that did not exist in the Kingdom. This cross-border activity exposed Saudi musicians to performance experiences, audience feedback, and professional networks that accelerated their development.

Dubai: Dubai’s club and lounge scene provided another outlet for Saudi underground artists, particularly DJs and electronic producers. Several Saudi DJs built regional reputations through Dubai residencies and guest sets before the Saudi entertainment opening gave them domestic performance opportunities.

Kuwait: Kuwait’s independent music scene — which predates Saudi Arabia’s by several years — provided inspiration and collaboration opportunities for Saudi underground artists. Kuwaiti indie bands and electronic producers created a precedent for Gulf music scenes that Saudi artists observed and learned from.

These regional connections continue to influence Saudi Arabia’s music scene in the post-opening era. Saudi artists who built Gulf-wide networks during the underground period leverage those relationships for touring, collaboration, and audience development across the region. The Gulf underground network has evolved into a professional circuit that connects Saudi music to the broader regional entertainment ecosystem, supporting the cross-border audience development that the streaming market and concert production sectors depend upon for sustainable growth.