Berber music bands of musicians traveling from village to village, entertaining at weddings and other social events with their songs, tales and poetry. Most Berber music is of the village- and urban-folk musical variety. Berber music and culture is influenced by the Berber people's long-standing struggle to achieve basic language rights and identity recognition in modern North African societies, aside from aesthetics and style. Berber music is characterized by its use of folk oral traditions, as well as particular scales and rhythmic patterns, which include pentatonic music and African rhythms. All these elements are combined together to form one of the main
Berber separatism in North Africa few of the demands of the Berber Spring have been met by the state, and the Berber language is now a national language of Algeria. However, this is still distinct from Arabic, which remains the official language, and many other points of contention remain. In 2014 and 2015 a number of ethnic riot incidents plagued Algeria, with a dozen mortal casualties in violence between ethnic Arabs and Berbers. In February 2017, protests erupted in Algeria, with some 500 protesters marching. The protest was organized by human rights groups, some trade unionists and a small opposition party. Algeria's main opposition forces