[4] The Muzika Mizrahit movement started in the 1950s with homegrown performers in neighborhoods with a high concentration of Jews from Arab countries who would play at weddings and other events.

[5] The first Mizrahi artist of this era was the Moroccan-born Jo Amar, who through the 1950s and 1960s made several albums and songs contributing to the genre, mostly influenced by Moroccan music.

A play titled HaMelekh (המלך 'The King') was written about his life story, portrayed his fall to drugs and his troubles with the law.

Because Mediterranean Israeli music was so popular within the Mizrahi Jewish communities, which were quickly becoming a large percentage of Israel, the natural outcome would be a continuous playback on the local radio station.

Yardena Arazi, one of Israel's most popular stars, made a recording in 1989 called "Dimion Mizrahi" (Eastern Imagination), and included original materials and some canonical Israeli songs.

"Today, the popular Muzika Mizrahit has begun to erase the differences from rock music, and we can see not a few artists turning into mainstream.

[citation needed] After Reuveni's friends and neighbours started offering to buy the cassettes he realized he might have a great opportunity on his hands.

Over time fusions of Mizrahi music with other genres emerged, including oriental rock, hip hop, and pop.

Some examples are Orphaned Land, Knesiyat Hasekhel, Algeir and lead singer Aviv Guedj, Yosi Sassi and Dudu Tassa.

Both groups feature several Middle Eastern themes, including one song in Gibberish Arabic, "Sandanya", from their debut LP Foreign Affair.

Musicians and producers of that time were starting to incorporate more elements of rock, techno, electronic dance music, Europop and R&B, while still strongly emphasizing the Greek, Turkish and Arab roots.

Along with earlier examples like Ofra Haza and Ethnix, later acts like Zehava Ben, Eyal Golan, Sarit Hadad and others revolutionized the genre and brought it to much larger audiences.

This is why comparisons to other global "counterculture turned mainstream movements" are less appropriate, with Hip hop and reggae music being highly innovative, as well as political and protest oriented.

There were also many cases of mutual influencing of the two movements in Israeli Pop as early as 1985, with some well-known Ashkenazi songwriters admiring the Mizrahi sound.