Trance states induced by music can be found amongst many cultures, but most are sacred in nature, closely connected to religion and ritual. Among the Arabs, however, there is a form of trance that exists outside the religious context, produced entirely by music: this is called TARAB.In much of the Arab world, music and TARAB have become so inseparable that TARAB has taken on the meaning of music as a whole.

The physical manifestations of TARAB are fainting, loss of consciousness, frenzy, crying out, and tearing one's clothes. In extreme cases, TARAB can also lead to madness and death.

TARAB comes from the word tariba, which means "to be moved, agitated", or, alternately, "to want to move, become excited". Thus, a singer like Oum Kulsoum is referred to as a mutriba, "she who moves people", and it was common for people who listen to her to be seized by TARAB.

In Iraq, village drummers who enter into TARAB, climax their performance by smashing their drums on their own heads. Which is the origin of the term "Breakbeat".