Rebetiko ( el, ρεμπέτικο, ), plural rebetika ( ), occasionally transliterated as rembetiko or rebetico, is a term used today to designate originally disparate kinds of urban Greek music which have come to be grouped together since the so-called rebetika revival, which started in the 1960s and developed further from the early 1970s onwards. Rebetiko briefly can be described as the urban popular song of the Greeks, especially the poorest, from the late 19th century to the 1950s. In 2017 rebetiko was added in the

UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists UNESCO established its Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage with the aim of ensuring better protection of important intangible cultural heritages worldwide and the awareness of their significance.Compare: This list is published by the Intergover ...

Definition and etymology

The word (plural ) is an adjectival form derived from the Greek word ( el, ρεμπέτης, ). The word is today construed to mean a person who embodies aspects of character, dress, behavior, morals and ethics associated with a particular subculture. The etymology of the word remains the subject of dispute and uncertainty; an early scholar of rebetiko,

Elias Petropoulos Elias Petropoulos ( el, Ηλίας Πετρόπουλος; Athens June 26, 1928 - Paris September 3, 2003) was a Greek author, folklorist and urban historian. A self-described "urban anthropologist," he wrote on aspects of Greek life that were rar ...

, and the modern Greek lexicographer Giorgos Babiniotis, both offer various suggested derivations, but leave the question open. The earliest source of the word to date is to be found in a Greek-Latin dictionary published in Leiden, Holland in 1614 where the word is defined as a 'wanderer', 'blind', 'misguided', etc.

Musical bases

Although nowadays treated as a single genre, rebetiko is, musically speaking, a synthesis of elements of

European music The culture of Europe is rooted in its art, architecture, film, different types of music, economics, literature, and philosophy. European culture is largely rooted in what is often referred to as its "common cultural heritage". Definition ...

, the music of the various areas of the Greek mainland and the Greek islands,

Greek Orthodox The term Greek Orthodox Church ( Greek: Ἑλληνορθόδοξη Ἐκκλησία, ''Ellinorthódoxi Ekklisía'', ) has two meanings. The broader meaning designates "the entire body of Orthodox (Chalcedonian) Christianity, sometimes also cal ...

ecclesiastical chant, often referred to as Byzantine music, and the modal traditions of Ottoman art music and café music.

Melody and harmony

The melodies of most rebetiko songs are thus often considered to follow one or more (, Greek for 'roads' or 'routes'; singular is (). The names of the are derived in all but a few cases from the names of various Turkish modes, also known as ''

makam The Turkish makam ( Turkish: ''makam'' pl. ''makamlar''; from the Arabic word ) is a system of melody types used in Turkish classical music and Turkish folk music. It provides a complex set of rules for composing and performance. Each makam spec ...

''. However, the majority of rebetiko songs have been accompanied by instruments capable of playing chords according to the Western harmonic system, and have thereby been harmonized in a manner which corresponds neither with conventional European harmony, nor with Ottoman art music, which is a monophonic form normally not harmonized. Furthermore, rebetika has come to be played on instruments tuned in equal temperament, in direct conflict with the more complex pitch divisions of the system. During the later period of the rebetiko revival there has been a cultural entente between Greek and Turkish musicians, mostly of the younger generations. One consequence of this has been a tendency to overemphasize the aspect of rebetiko at the expense of the European components and, most significantly, at the expense of perceiving and problematizing this music's truly

syncretic Syncretism () is the practice of combining different beliefs and various schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, thu ...

nature. However it is important to note in this context that a considerable proportion of the rebetiko repertoire on Greek records until 1936 was not dramatically different, except in terms of language and musical "dialect", from Ottoman café music (played by musicians of various ethnic backgrounds) which the mainland Greeks called '' Smyrneika''. This portion of the recorded repertoire was played almost exclusively on the instruments of /Ottoman café music, such as

kanonaki The qanun, kanun, ganoun or kanoon ( ar, قانون, qānūn; hy, քանոն, k’anon; ckb, قانون, qānūn; el, κανονάκι, kanonáki; he, קָאנוּן, ''qanun''; fa, , ''qānūn''; tr, kanun; az, qanun; ) is a string ...

, santouri, politikí lyra (), (, actually identical with the Hungarian

cimbalom The cimbalom (; ) or concert cimbalom is a type of chordophone composed of a large, trapezoidal box on legs with metal strings stretched across its top and a damping pedal underneath. It was designed and created by V. Josef Schunda in 1874 in ...

, or the Romanian

țambal The cimbalom (; ) or concert cimbalom is a type of chordophone composed of a large, trapezoidal box on legs with metal strings stretched across its top and a damping pedal underneath. It was designed and created by V. Josef Schunda in 1874 in ...

), and clarinet.

Scales

The

scales Scale or scales may refer to: Mathematics * Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points * Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original * Scale factor, a number w ...

used in rebetiko music are the traditional western

major and minor In Western music, the adjectives major and minor may describe a chord, scale, or key. As such, composition, movement, section, or phrase may be referred to by its key, including whether that key is major or minor. Intervals Some intervals ...

scales, as well as a series of eastern

s, influenced by the

Ottoman classical music Ottoman music ( tr, Osmanlı müziği) or Turkish classical music ( tr, Türk sanat müziği) is the tradition of classical music originating in the Ottoman Empire. Developed in the palace, major Ottoman cities, and Sufi lodges, it traditional ...

. Some of them include rast, uşşâk,

hijaz The Hejaz (, also ; ar, ٱلْحِجَاز, al-Ḥijāz, lit=the Barrier, ) is a region in the west of Saudi Arabia. It includes the cities of Mecca, Medina, Jeddah, Tabuk, Yanbu, Taif, and Baljurashi. It is also known as the "Western Provi ...

(or "phrygian dominant scale"), and

nahawand Nahavand ( fa, نهاوند, translit=Nahāvand / Nehāvend) is a city in Hamadan Province, Iran. It is the capital of Nahavand County. At the time of the 2006 census, its population was 72,218, in 19,419 families. It is located south of the ci ...

Rhythms

Most rebetiko songs are based on traditional Greek or Anatolian dance rhythms. Most common are: *

Syrtos Syrtos ( el, συρτός, ''syrtos'' (also ''sirtos''); plural , ''syrtoi'' (also ''sirtoi''); sometimes called in English using the Greek accusative forms ''syrto'' (also ''sirto''); from the el, links=no, σύρω, ''syro'' (also ''siro''), ...

, a general name for many Greek dances (including the

Nisiotika Nisiotika ( el, νησιώτικα, meaning "insular (songs)") are the songs and dances of Greek islands with a variety of styles, played by ethnic Greeks in Greece, Turkey, Australia, the United States and elsewhere. The lyre is the dominant fo ...

), (mostly a meter in various forms) *

Zeibekiko Zeibekiko ( el, Ζεϊμπέκικο, ) is a Greek folk dance. Origin and history It takes its name from the Zeybeks, an irregular militia living in the Aegean Region of the Ottoman Empire from late 17th to early 20th centuries. It was fir ...

, a or a meter, in its various forms * Hasaposervikos, including various kinds of Greek music. It is also the fast version of ''hasapiko'' (like and meter) *

Hasapiko The hasapiko ( el, χασάπικο, , meaning “the butcher's ance��) is a Greek folk dance from Constantinople. The dance originated in the Middle Ages as a battle mime with swords performed by the Greek butchers' guild, which adopted it fr ...

, a meter and the fast version ''hasaposerviko'' in a meter *

Antikristos Antikristos or Antikrystós ( el, αντικρυστός χορός) is a dance of Greek origin. “Aντικρυστός” in Greek language refers to the verb αντικρύζω “be across, opposite, face-to-face” (from Ancient Greek ἀ ...

Karsilamas Karsilamas (From tr, karşılama, in Greek: ) is a Turkish folk dance spread all over Northwest Turkey and carried to Greece by Anatolian Greek immigrants. The term "karşılama" means "encounter, welcoming, greeting" in Turkish. The dance is po ...

and ''argilamas'' (a meter) *

Kamilierikos Kamilierikos ( el, καμηλιέρικος χορός) or kamilieriko, is a kind of a Greek traditional dance, similar to fast zeibekiko and antikristos. Like zeibekiko, Kamilierikos is again in "9/8" signature Tsifteteli, cheerful dance for women (a ) *

Bolero Bolero is a genre of song which originated in eastern Cuba in the late 19th century as part of the trova tradition. Unrelated to the older Spanish dance of the same name, bolero is characterized by sophisticated lyrics dealing with love. It has ...

, in a few songs, mainly for guitar (a ) Various other rhythms are used too.

Taxim

There is one component within the rebetiko tradition which is common to many musical styles within Eastern musical spheres. This is the freely improvised unmeasured prelude, within a given /, which can occur at the beginning or in the middle of a song. This is known in Greek as or ( or ) after the Arabic word usually transliterated as ''

taqsim ''Taqsim'' ( ckb, تەقسیم, ar, تَقْسِيم / ALA-LC: ''taqsīm''; el, ταξίμι, translit=taksimi, tr, taksim) is a melodic musical improvisation that usually precedes the performance of a traditional Arabic, Kurdish, Greek, Middl ...

'' or .

Instruments

The first rebetiko songs to be recorded, as mentioned above, were mostly in Ottoman/Smyrna style, employing instruments of the Ottoman tradition. During the second half of the 1930s, as rebetiko music gradually acquired its own character, the bouzouki began to emerge as the emblematic instrument of this music, gradually ousting the instruments which had been brought over from

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

The bouzouki

The

bouzouki The bouzouki (, also ; el, μπουζούκι ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', from Greek ), also spelled buzuki or buzuci, is a musical instrument popular in Greece. It is a member of the long-necked lute family, with a round body with a flat top and ...

was apparently not particularly well-known among the refugees from Asia Minor, but had been known by that name in Greece since at least 1835, from which year a drawing by the Danish artist

Martinus Rørbye Martinus Christian Wesseltoft Rørbye (; 17 May 1803 – 29 August 1848) was a Danish painter, known both for genre works and landscapes. He was a central figure of the Golden Age of Danish painting during the first half of the 19th century. Th ...

has survived. It is a view of the studio of the Athenian luthier

Leonidas Gailas Leonidas I (; grc-gre, Λεωνίδας; died 19 September 480 BC) was a king of the Greek city-state of Sparta, and the 17th of the Agiad line, a dynasty which claimed descent from the mythological demigod Heracles. Leonidas I was son of King ...

(), whom the artist describes as . The drawing clearly shows a number of bouzouki-like instruments. Despite this evidence, we still know nothing of the early history of the instrument's association with what came to be called rebetiko. Recent research has however uncovered a number of hitherto unknown references to the instrument during the 19th and early 20th centuries, including evidence of its established presence in the Peloponnese.Kourousis, Stavros (2013) "From Tambouras to Bouzouki" The History and Evolution of the Bouzouki and its first Recordings (1926–1932) Orpheum Phonograph ORPH-01 Although known in the rebetiko context, and often referred to in song lyrics, well before it was allowed into the recording studio, the bouzouki was first commercially recorded not in Greece, but in America, in 1926, when the Peloponnesian musician Konstandinos Kokotis (1878 – after 1948) recorded two Peloponnesian folk songs with the accordionist Ioannis Sfondilias. This recording, reissued for the first time in 2013, reveals a "folk" melodic style never recorded before or since. The first recording to feature the instrument clearly in a recognisable somewhat more "modern" melodic role, was made in 1929, in New York. Three years later the first true bouzouki solo was recorded by Ioannis Halikias, also in New York, in January 1932. In Greece the bouzouki had been allowed into a studio for the very first time a few months previously, in October 1931. In the hands of Thanassis Manetas (1870-ca 1943), together with the player Yiannis Livadhitis, it can be heard accompanying the singers Konstantinos Masselos, aka Nouros, and Spahanis, on two discs, three songs in all. These early commercial recordings in America and in Greece had however been preceded by a group of documentary recordings, consisting of one shellac 78 rpm disc and five wax cylinders, made in Görlitz, Germany in July 1917, during WWI. The amateur bouzouki player Konstandinos Kalamaras accompanied a professional Byzantine singer, Konstandinos Vorgias, and an amateur singer, Apostolos Papadiamantis. These three men were among 6500 Greek soldiers interned as guests of Germany in an ex-POW camp in the small town of Görlitz at the Polish border, from September 1916 until their release in February 1919. It was not until October 1932, in the wake of the success of Halikias' New York recording, which immediately met with great success in Greece, that

Markos Vamvakaris Márkos Vamvakáris ( el, Μάρκος Βαμβακάρης; 10 May 1905 – 8 February 1972), was a ''rebetiko'' musician. He is universally referred to by ''rebetiko'' writers and fans simply by his first name, Márkos. The great significance ...

made his first recordings with the bouzouki. These recordings marked the real beginning of the bouzouki's recorded career in Greece, a career which continues unbroken to the present day.

Other instruments

The core instruments of rebetiko, from the mid-1930s onwards, have been the bouzouki, the

baglamas The baglamas ( el, μπαγλαμάς) (plural '' baglamades'') or baglamadaki (), a long necked bowl-lute, is a plucked string instrument used in Greek music; it is a smaller version of the bouzouki pitched an octave higher (nominally D-A-D ...

and the

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

. Other instruments included accordion, politiki (Constantinopolitan) lyra (sometimes other lyra were used), clarinet,

oud , image=File:oud2.jpg , image_capt=Syrian oud made by Abdo Nahat in 1921 , background= , classification= * String instruments *Necked bowl lutes , hornbostel_sachs=321.321-6 , hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded with a plectrum , ...

, santur,

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

and finger-cymbals. Other instruments heard on rebetiko recordings include:

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox additions such as the octobass). Similar i ...

laouto The laouto ( el, λαούτο, pl. laouta ) is a long-neck fretted instrument of the lute family, found in Greece and Cyprus, and similar in appearance to the oud. It has four double-strings. It is played in most respects like the oud (plucked ...

mandola The mandola (US and Canada) or tenor mandola (Ireland and UK) is a fretted, stringed musical instrument. It is to the mandolin what the viola is to the violin: the four double courses of strings tuned in fifths to the same pitches as the viola ...

, mandolin and

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

. In some recordings, the sound of clinking glass may be heard. This sound is produced by drawing

worry beads Worry beads or kombolói, kompoloi ( el, κομπολόι, , ''bead collection''; plural: , ) is a string of beads manipulated with one or two hands and used to pass time in Greek and Cypriot culture. Unlike the similar prayer beads used in man ...

() against a fluted drinking glass, originally an ad hoc and supremely effective rhythmic instrument, probably characteristic of teké and taverna milieux, and subsequently adopted in the recording studios.

Lyrics

Like several other urban subcultural musical forms such as the blues,

flamenco Flamenco (), in its strictest sense, is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura and ...

fado Fado (; "destiny, fate") is a music genre that can be traced to the 1820s in Lisbon, Portugal, but probably has much earlier origins. Fado historian and scholar Rui Vieira Nery states that "the only reliable information on the history of fado was ...

bal-musette Bal-musette is a style of French instrumental music and dance that first became popular in Paris in the 1880s. Although it began with bagpipes as the main instrument, this instrument was replaced with accordion, on which a variety of waltzes, polkas ...

and

tango Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries as the result of a combina ...

, rebetiko grew out of particular urban circumstances. Often its lyrics reflect the harsher realities of a marginalized subculture's lifestyle. Thus one finds themes such as crime, drink, drugs, poverty, prostitution and violence, but also a multitude of themes of relevance to Greek people of any social stratum: death, eroticism, exile, exoticism, disease, love, marriage, matchmaking, the mother figure, war, work, and diverse other everyday matters, both happy and sad.

Manos Hatzidakis Manos Hatzidakis (also spelled Hadjidakis; el, Μάνος Χατζιδάκις; 23 October 1925 – 15 June 1994) was a Greek composer and theorist of Greek music, widely considered to be one of the greatest Greek composers and one of the most ...

summarized the key elements in three words with a wide presence in the vocabulary of

modern Greek Modern Greek (, , or , ''Kiní Neoellinikí Glóssa''), generally referred to by speakers simply as Greek (, ), refers collectively to the dialects of the Greek language spoken in the modern era, including the official standardized form of the ...

, , and (, , : love, joy, and sorrow). A perhaps over-emphasized theme of rebetiko is the pleasure of using drugs (

cocaine Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly used recreationally for its euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from the leaves of two Coca species native to South Ameri ...

, heroin- etc.), but especially hashish. Rebetiko songs emphasizing such matters have come to be called (), although musically speaking they do not differ from the main body of rebetiko songs in any particular way.

Culture

Rebetiko is closely related with nightlife entertainment: ouzeri,

taverna A taverna (Greek: ταβέρνα) is a small Greek restaurant that serves Greek cuisine. The taverna is an integral part of Greek culture and has become familiar to people from other countries who visit Greece, as well as through the establishme ...

(Greek

tavern A tavern is a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food such as different types of roast meats and cheese, and (mostly historically) where travelers would receive lodging. An inn is a tavern t ...

) and night centres. Rebetiko is also sometimes related with the icon of ''

mangas Manges (; Greek language, Greek: μάγκες ; Grammatical number, sing.: mangas , μάγκας ) is the name of a social group in the Belle Époque era's counterculture of Greece (especially of the great urban centers: History of Athens#Modern At ...

'' ( el, μάγκας, ), which means ''strong'' ''guy'' that "needs correction", a social group in the Belle Époque era's counterculture of Greece (especially of the great urban centers:

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

Piraeus Piraeus ( ; el, Πειραιάς ; grc, Πειραιεύς ) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece. It is located southwest of Athens' city centre, along the east coast of the Saron ...

, and

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...

). Mangas was a label for men belonging to the

working class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colo ...

, behaving in a particularly arrogant/presumptuous way, and dressing with a very typical vesture composed of a woolen hat (, ), a jacket (they usually wore only one of its sleeves), a tight belt (used as a knife case), stripe pants, and pointy shoes. Other features of their appearance were their long moustache, their bead chaplets (, sing. ), and their idiosyncratic manneristic limp-walking (). A related social group were the Koutsavakides (, sing. According to lexicographer Menos Filintas () their name comes from

kottabos Kottabos ( grc, κότταβος) was a game of skill played at Ancient Greek and Etruscan symposia (drinking parties), especially in the 6th and 5th centuries BC. It involved flinging wine-lees (sediment) at a target in the middle of the ro ...

; according to the

Manolis Triantafyllidis Foundation Manolis A. Triantafyllidis ( el, Μανόλης Α. Τριανταφυλλίδης; Athens, 15 November 1883 – Athens, 20 April 1959) was a major representative of the demotic movement in education in Greece. He was mostly active in Thessalonik ...

it derives from the surname of Dimitris "Mitsos" Koutsavakis, a notable mangas who lived in Piraeus
κουτσαβάκης
); the two terms are occasionally used interchangeably.

History

Initially a music associated with the lower classes, rebetiko later reached greater general acceptance as the rough edges of its overt subcultural character were softened and polished, sometimes to the point of unrecognizability. Then, when the original form was almost forgotten, and its original protagonists either dead, or in some cases almost consigned to oblivion, it became, from the 1960s onwards, a revived musical form of wide popularity, especially among younger people of the time.

Origins

Rebetiko probably originated in the music of the larger, mainly coastal cities in today's Asia Minor with large Greek communities during the

Ottoman era The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

. In these cities the cradles of rebetiko were likely to be the ouzeri, the hashish dens () with

hookahs A hookah (Hindustani language, Hindustani: (Nastaleeq), (Devanagari), IPA: ; also see #Names and etymology, other names), shisha, or waterpipe is a single- or multi-stemmed instrument for heating or vaporizing and then smoking either tobacco ...

coffee shops A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, notably espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee and iced tea, as well as other non-caf ...

and even the prison. In view of the paucity of documentation prior to the era of sound recordings it is difficult to assert further facts on the very early history of this music. There is a certain amount of recorded Greek material from the first two decades of the 20th century, recorded in Constantinople/Istanbul, in Egypt and in America, of which isolated examples have some bearing on rebetiko, such as in the very first case of the use of the word itself on a record label. But there are no recordings from this early period which give an inkling of the local music of Piraeus such as first emerged on disc in 1931 (see above).

Smyrna style

During the early 20th century, the main centre of rebetiko music was the multi-national port of Smyrna (modern Izmir) in

. The musicians of Smyrna were influenced not only from the eastern sounds inside the

Ottoman empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

, but also from the European-style music of the many European communities of the city, most notably the

Italians , flag = , flag_caption = The national flag of Italy , population = , regions = Italy 55,551,000 , region1 = Brazil , pop1 = 25–33 million , ref1 = , region2 ...

. Smyrneiki Estudiantina was a group of musicians playing popular music for Greeks worldwide. After the

Great fire of Smyrna The burning of Smyrna ( el, Καταστροφή της Σμύρνης, "Smyrna Catastrophe"; tr, 1922 İzmir Yangını, "1922 Izmir Fire"; hy, Զմիւռնիոյ Մեծ Հրդեհ, ''Zmyuṙno Mets Hrdeh'') destroyed much of the port city of ...

many of them ( Panagiotis Toundas, Spyros Peristeris, Giorgos Vidalis, Anestis Delias and others) fled to Greece contributing to the development of the rebetiko style music in Greece.

1922–1932

In the wake of the

Asia Minor Catastrophe Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

and the

population exchange Population transfer or resettlement is a type of mass migration, often imposed by state policy or international authority and most frequently on the basis of ethnicity or religion but also due to economic development. Banishment or exile is a ...

of 1923, huge numbers of refugees settled in

Volos Volos ( el, Βόλος ) is a coastal port city in Thessaly situated midway on the Greek mainland, about north of Athens and south of Thessaloniki. It is the sixth most populous city of Greece, and the capital of the Magnesia regional unit ...

and other harbor cities. They brought with them both European and Anatolian musical instruments and musical elements, including Ottoman café music, and, often neglected in accounts of this music, a somewhat Italianate style with mandolins and choral singing in parallel thirds and sixths. Many of these Greek musicians from Asia Minor were highly competent musicians. Initially an "Athenean Estudiantina" was established with Giorgos Vidalis and some musicians of the old Smyrneiki Estudiantina. Other musicians became studio directors ( A&R men) for the major companies, for example Spyros Peristeris (who played mandolin, guitar, piano and later bouzouki), Panagiotis Toundas (primarily a mandolinist) and the violin virtuoso Giannis Dragatsis (Oghdhondakis). The musical personalities of Peristeris and Toundas in particular came to have enormous influence on the further development of recorded rebetiko. While from the middle of the 1920s a substantial number of Anatolian-style songs were recorded in Greece, examples of Piraeus-style rebetiko song first reached shellac in 1931 (see above).

1930s

During the 1930s, the relatively sophisticated musical styles met with, and cross-fertilised, with the more heavy-hitting local urban styles exemplified by the earliest recordings of

and Batis.3rd ed. 1983, pp. 24–27. This historical process has led to a currently used terminology intended to distinguish between the clearly Asia Minor oriental style, often called "", and the bouzouki-based style of the 1930s, often called Piraeus style. Also, the use of mandolin totally vanished. Piraeus Quartet

By the end of the 1930s rebetiko had reached what can reasonably be called its classic phase, in which elements of the early

style, elements of the Asia Minor style, clearly European and

Greek folk music Greek traditional music (Greek: παραδοσιακή μουσική, "traditional music"; also δημοτικά τραγούδια, "folk songs") includes a variety of Greek styles played by ethnic Greeks in Greece, Cyprus, Australia, the Uni ...

elements, had fused to generate a genuinely syncretic musical form. Simultaneously, with the onset of censorship, a process began in which rebetiko lyrics slowly began to lose what had been their defining underworld character. This process extended over more than a decade.

Metaxas censorship, new directions

In 1936, the

4th of August Regime The 4th of August Regime ( el, Καθεστώς της 4ης Αυγούστου, Kathestós tis tetártis Avgoústou), commonly also known as the Metaxas regime (, ''Kathestós Metaxá''), was a totalitarian regime under the leadership of Gener ...

under

Ioannis Metaxas Ioannis Metaxas (; el, Ιωάννης Μεταξάς; 12th April 187129th January 1941) was a Greek military officer and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Greece from 1936 until his death in 1941. He governed constitutionally for t ...

was established and with it, the onset of

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...

. Some of the subject matter of rebetiko songs was now considered disreputable and unacceptable. During this period, when the Metaxas dictatorship subjected all song lyrics to censorship, song composers would rewrite lyrics, or practice self-censorship before submitting lyrics for approval. The music itself was not subject to censorship, although proclamations were made recommending the "Europeanisation" of the regarded outcoming Anatolian music, which led to certain radio stations banning in 1938, i.e. on the basis of music rather than lyrics. This was, however, not bouzouki music. The term , (sing. , Gr. , sing. ) refers to a kind of improvised sung lament, in ummeasured time, sung in a particular ''/''. The were perhaps the most pointedly oriental kind of songs in the Greek repertoire of the time. Metaxas closed also all the ( hashish dens) in the country. References to drugs and other criminal or disreputable activities now vanished from recordings made in Greek studios, to reappear briefly in the first recordings made at the resumption of recording activity in 1946. In the United States, however, a flourishing Greek musical production continued, with song lyrics apparently unaffected by censorship, (see below) although, strangely, the bouzouki continued to be rare on American recordings until after WWII. It is notable that Rebetiko music was also rejected by the Greek Left because of its "reactionary" (according to the Communist Party of Greece) and subculture character and the drug references.

Postwar period

Recording activities ceased during the Axis occupation of Greece during World War II (1941–1944), and did not resume until 1946; that year, during a very short period, a handful of uncensored songs with drug references were recorded, several in multiple versions with different singers. The scene was soon popularized further by stars like

Vassilis Tsitsanis Vassilis Tsitsanis ( el, Βασίλης Τσιτσάνης 18 January 1915 – 18 January 1984) was a Greek songwriter and bouzouki player. He became one of the leading Greek composers of his time and is widely regarded as one of the founders of ...

. His musical career had started in 1936, and continued during the war despite the occupation. A musical genius, he was both a brilliant bouzouki player and a prolific composer, with hundreds of songs to his credit. After the war he continued to develop his style in new directions, and under his wing, singers such as

Sotiria Bellou Sotiria Bellou ( el, Σωτηρία Μπέλλου) (August 22, 1921 – August 27, 1997) was a Greek singer and performer of the ''rebetiko'' style of music. She was one of the most famous ''rebetisa'' of all, mentioned in many music guides, a ...

Ioanna Georgakopoulou Joanna is a feminine given name deriving from from he, יוֹחָנָה, translit=Yôḥānāh, lit=God is gracious. Variants in English include Joan, Joann, Joanne, and Johanna. Other forms of the name in English are Jan, Jane, Janet, Janice, ...

Stella Haskil Stella or STELLA may refer to: Art, entertainment, and media Comedy *Stella (comedy group), a comedy troupe consisting of Michael Showalter, Michael Ian Black and David Wain Characters *Stella (given name), including a list of characters with th ...

and

Marika Ninou Marika Ninou ( el, Μαρίκα Νίνου) (1922 – 23 February 1957), was an Armenian-Greek rebetiko singer, born Evangelia Atamian ( el, Ευαγγελία Αταμιάν). Biography She was born in 1922 on the ship "Evangelistria" that b ...

made their appearance. Tsitsanis developed the "westernization" of the rebetiko and made it more known to large sections of the population, setting also the bases for the future '' laiko''. In 1948

shook the musical establishment by delivering his legendary lecture on rebetiko, until then with heavy underworld and cannabis use connections and consequently looked down upon. Hatzidakis focused on the economy of expression, the deep traditional roots and the genuineness of emotion displayed in rembetika, and exalted the likes of composers like

and

. Putting theory into practice, he adapted classic rembetika in his 1951 piano work, ''Six Folk Paintings'' (''Έξι Λαϊκές Ζωγραφιές''), which was later also presented as a folk ballet. Bouzouki 001

Parallel to the post-war career of Tsitsanis, the career of

Manolis Chiotis Manolis Chiotis (Greek: Μανώλης Χιώτης; March 21, 1921 – March 20, 1970) was a Greek rebetiko and laiko composer, singer, and bouzouki player.English translation He is considered one of the greatest bouzouki soloists of all ti ...

took rebetiko and the Greek popular music in more radically new directions. Chiotis developed much more the "europeanisation/westernization" of the rebetiko. In 1953 he added a fourth pair of strings to the

, which allowed it to be played as a guitar and set the stage for the future '

electrification Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic histor ...

' of rebetiko. Chiotis was also a bold innovator, importing Latin and South American rhythms (such as

rumba The term rumba may refer to a variety of unrelated music styles. Originally, "rumba" was used as a synonym for "party" in northern Cuba, and by the late 19th century it was used to denote the complex of secular music styles known as Cuban rumba. ...

mambo Mambo most often refers to: * Mambo (music), a Cuban musical form *Mambo (dance), a dance corresponding to mambo music Mambo may also refer to: Music * Mambo section, a section in arrangements of some types of Afro-Caribbean music, particul ...

etc.), and concentrating on songs in a decidedly lighter vein than the characteristic ambiance of rebetiko songs. Perhaps most significantly of all, Chiotis, himself a virtuoso not only on the bouzouki but on guitar, violin and oud, was responsible for introducing and popularizing the modified 4-stringed bouzouki () in 1956. Chiotis was already a seemingly fully-fledged virtuoso on the traditional 3-stringed instrument by his teens, but the guitar-based tuning of his new instrument, in combination with his playful delight in extreme virtuosity, led to new concepts of bouzouki playing which came to define the style used in ( laiko) and other forms of bouzouki music, which however could no longer really be called rebetiko in any sense. A comparable development also took place on the vocal side. In 1952 a young singer named

Stelios Kazantzidis Stelios Kazantzidis (Greek: Στέλιος Καζαντζίδης; 29 August 1931 – 14 September 2001) was one of the most prominent Greek singers. A leading singer of Greek popular music, or Laïkó, he collaborated with many of Greece's fore ...

recorded a couple of rebetika songs that were quite successful. Although he would continue in the same style for a few years it was quickly realized, by all parties involved, that his singing technique and expressive abilities were too good to be contained within the rebetiko idiom. Soon well-known composers of rebetika—like Kaldaras, Chiotis, Klouvatos—started to write songs tailored to Stelios powerful voice and this created a further shift in rebetika music. The new songs had a more complex melodic structure and were usually more dramatic in character.

Kazantzidis Stelios Kazantzidis (Greek: Στέλιος Καζαντζίδης; 29 August 1931 – 14 September 2001) was one of the most prominent Greek singers. A leading singer of Greek popular music, or Laïkó, he collaborated with many of Greece's fore ...

went on to become a star of the emerging laiki music. Kazantzidis, however, did not only contribute to the demise of classical rebetika (of the Piraeus style that is). Paradoxically, he was also one of the forerunners of its revival. In 1956 he started his cooperation with Vassilis Tsitsanis who, in addition to writing new songs for Kazantzidis, also gave him some of his old ones to reinterpret. Kazantzidis, thus, sung and popularized such rebetika classics as "" (Clouded Sunday), "" and "". These songs, and many others, previously unknown to the wider public, suddenly became cherished and sought-after. At about the same time many of the old time performers—both singers and bouzouki players—abandoned the musical scene of Greece. Some of them died prematurely (Haskil, Ninou), others emigrated to the US (Binis, Evgenikos, Tzouanakos, Kaplanis), while some quit music life for other work (Pagioumtzis, Genitsaris). This, of course, created a void which had to be filled with new blood. In the beginning the new recruits—like for example Dalia, Grey and Kazantzidis—stayed within the bounds of classical rebetica. Soon, however, their youthful enthusiasm and different experiences found expression in new stylistic venues which eventually changed the old idiom. This combined situation contributed, during the 1950s, to the almost total eclipse of rebetiko by other popular styles. By the late 1950s, rebetiko had declined; it only survived in the form of (, 'posh rebetiko' or 'bourgeois rebetiko'), a refined style of rebetiko that was far more accepted by the upper class than the traditional form of the genre. In fact, somewhat confusingly, from at least the 1950s, during which period rebetiko songs were not usually referred to as a separate musical category, but more specifically on the basis of lyrics, the term (), or , () covered a broad range of Greek popular music, including songs with the bouzouki, and songs that today would without doubt be classified as rebetiko. The term in its turn derives from the word () which translates best as 'the people'.

The revival

The first phase of the rebetiko revival can perhaps be said to have begun around 1960. In that year the singer

Grigoris Bithikotsis Grigoris Bithikotsis (Greek Γρηγόρης Μπιθικώτσης, ; December 11, 1922 – April 7, 2005) was a Greek folk singer/songwriter with a career spanning five decades. He is considered one of the most important figures in Greek popular ...

recorded a number of songs by

, and Vamvakaris himself made his first recording since 1954. During the same period, writers such as

began researching and publishing their earliest attempts to write on rebetiko as a subject in itself. The bouzouki, unquestioned as the basic musical instrument of rebetiko music, now began to make inroads into other areas of Greek music, not least due to the virtuosity of Manolis Chiotis. From 1960 onwards prominent Greek composers such as

Mikis Theodorakis Michail "Mikis" Theodorakis ( el, Μιχαήλ "Μίκης" Θεοδωράκης ; 29 July 1925 – 2 September 2021) was a Greek composer and lyricist credited with over 1,000 works. He scored for the films ''Zorba the Greek'' (1964), '' Z'' ...

and

employed bouzouki virtuosi such as Manolis Chiotis, Giorgos Zambetas, and Thanassis Polyhandriotis in their recordings. The next phase of the rebetiko revival can be said to have started in the beginning of the 1970s, when LP reissues of 78 rpm recordings, both anthologies and records devoted to individual artists, began to appear in larger numbers. This phase of the revival was initially, and is still to a large extent, characterized by a desire to recapture the style of the original recordings, whereas the first phase tended to present old songs in the current musical idiom of Greek popular music, . Many singers emerged and became popular during this period. It was during the 1970s that the first work which aimed at popularizing rebetiko outside the Greek language sphere appeared1st ed. 1975. and the first English-language academic work was completed. During the 1970s a number of older artists made new recordings of the older repertoire, accompanied by bouzouki players of a younger generation. Giorgios Mouflouzelis, for example, recorded a number of LPs, though he had never recorded during his youth in the 78 rpm era. The most significant contribution in this respect was perhaps a series of LPs recorded by the singer

, who had had a fairly successful career from 1947 onwards, initially under the wing of Tsitsanis. These newer recordings were instrumental in bringing rebetiko to the ears of many who were unfamiliar with the recordings of the 78 rpm era, and are still available today as CDs. An important aspect of the revival of the late 1960s and early 1970s was the element of protest, resistance and revolt against the military dictatorship of the junta years. This was perhaps because rebetiko lyrics, although seldom directly political, were easily construed as subversive by the nature of their subject matter and their association in popular memory with previous periods of conflict. Dalaras live

Rebetiko in its original form was revived during the Junta of 1967–1974, when the

Regime of the Colonels In politics, a regime (also "régime") is the form of government or the set of rules, cultural or social norms, etc. that regulate the operation of a government or institution and its interactions with society. According to Yale professor Juan Jo ...

banned it. After the end of the Junta, many revival groups (and solo artists) appeared. The most notable of them include Opisthodhromiki Kompania, Rembetiki Kompania, Babis Tsertos,

Agathonas Iakovidis Agathonas Iakovidis ( el, Αγάθωνας Ιακωβίδης; 2 January 1955 – 5 August 2020) was a Greek folk singer of rebetiko style. He represented Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 with Koza Mostra and the song "Alcohol Is Free" ...

and others.

Giorgos Dalaras George Dalaras ( Γιώργος Νταλάρας, 29 September 1949) is a Greek musician and singer. He is one of the most prominent figures of Greek musical culture. In October 2006, he was selected as a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Ag ...

in 1975 decided to release his own renditions of rebetiko songs on the double LP ''50'' (50 , ''50 Years of Rebetiko Songs''). The recording proved an immediate success, despite the toning down of the lyrics. However, as a result, a new movement was set to take place in Greek music, and the once forgotten were finding themselves performing, in some cases for the first time in 30 to 40 years. He followed up this work with an LP in 1980, (, '' Rebetiko (songs) of the occupation''), which was a more gritty and meaty release, more faithful to the tone of the original rebetika as heard in the 1930s. However, again references to drugs were cut out, and only mentioned in passing. Unlike the previous double LP, this one contained some of the original musicians, Bayianteras and Genitsaris in particular making an appearance on the album.

Modern times

Today, rebetiko songs are still popular in Greece, both in contemporary interpretations which make no attempt to be other than contemporary in style, and in interpretations aspiring to emulate the old styles. The genre is a subject of growing international research, and its popularity outside Greece is now well-established. Some of the musicians and singers of the genre include Babis Tsertos, Babis Goles and

. In 2012,

Vinicio Capossela Vinicio Capossela (born 14 December 1965) is an Italian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist. Capossela is renowned for the highly original and poetic lyrics of his songs. Many of them draw from traditions of Italian folk music, especially those ...

released his music album .

In the United States

Greek emigration to the United States started in earnest towards the end of the 19th century. From then onwards, and in the years following the

Asia Minor Disaster Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

, until immigration became restricted in the mid-1920s, a great number of Greeks emigrated to the United States, bringing their musical traditions with them. American companies began recording Greek music performed by these immigrants as early as 1896. The first Greek-American recording enterprises made their appearance in 1919. From the latter years of the second decade of the century there exist a number of recordings that can be considered as rebetiko, a few years before such songs began to appear on recordings in Greece. The music industry in the United States came to play a particular role from the mid-1930s onwards in recording rebetiko lyrics which would not have passed the censors in Greece. This phenomenon came to repeat itself during the period of the Greek military junta of 1967–1974. A notable example of American recording studios permitting some 'bolder' lyrics can be found in the LP (, ''When They Smoke The Hookah'') by Apostolos Nikolaidis, released in 1973. Releasing this album in Greece, with its overt references to various aspects of drug use, would have been impossible at that time. It is worth noting, however, that the censorship laws invoked in Greece by Metaxas were never officially revoked until 1981, seven years after the fall of the junta. A further characteristic of American Greek recordings of the time was the recording of songs in the Anatolian musical styles of rebetiko, which continued in the United States well into the 1950s. Even songs originally recorded with typical bouzouki-baglamas-guitar accompaniment could appear in Anatolian garments. After WWII, beginning in the early 1950s, many Greek rebetiko musicians and singers traveled from Greece to tour the United States, and some stayed for longer periods. Prominent among them were Ioannis Papaioannou,

, Iordanis Tsomidis,

Roza Eskenazi Roza Eskenazi (mid-1890s – 2 December 1980, Greek: Ρόζα Εσκενάζυ) was a famous Jewish-Greek dancer and singer of ''rebetiko'', Greek folk music, Kanto and Turkish folk music born in Istanbul, whose recording and stage career extend ...

, Stratos Pagioumtzis, Stavros Tzouanakos and Giannis Tatasopoulos, of whom the latter three died in the United States.

Rebetiko rock

Rebetiko rock is a music genre that fuses the elements of

rock music Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States an ...

and rebetiko. Hard rock and the

are also a major influence on rebetiko rock.

Performers of rebetiko on 78 rpm recordings

Image:Rita Abatzi.jpg,

Rita Abatzi Rita Abatzi (also spelled Abadzi; el, Ρίτα Αμπατζή) (1914 – 17 June 1969) was a Greek ''rebetiko'' musician who began her career in the first part of the 1930s. She was born in Smyrna (now Izmir), in the Aidin Vilayet of the Ottoman ...

Image:George Batis.JPG,

Yiorgos Batis Yiorgos Batis ( el, Γιώργος Μπάτης, also Giorgos Batis) (1885 – 10 March 1967) was one of the first rebetes influential to ''rebetiko'' music. His real name was Yiorgos Tsoros although he was known as Yiorgos Ampatis. He had a g ...

Image:Anestis Delias rebetiko musician about 1933.jpg, Anestis Delias Image:Marika Ninou.jpg,

File:Roukounas.jpg,

Kostas Roukounas Konstantinos (Kostas) Roukounas ( el, Κώστας Ρούκουνας) (Principality of Samos, 1903 – Athens, 11 March 1984) was a Greek singer. His repertoire included both "traditional" (''δημοτικά'') and "popular" songs (''λαϊκά' ...

Discography

Much rebetiko is issued in Greece on CDs which quickly go out of print. Since the 1990s a considerable number of high quality CD productions of historical rebetikoComprehensive list of Greek 78 rpm issues including title, artist(s), composer(s) and genre assignation. have been released by various European and American labels. The following select discography includes some of these historical anthologies, which are likely to be available in English speaking countries, plus a few Greek issues. All are CDs unless otherwise noted. The emphasis on English-language releases in this discography is motivated both by their consistently high sound quality and by their inclusion, in many cases, of copious information in English, which tends to be lacking in Greek issues. See however link section below for one Greek source of historic CDs with website and notes in English. * ''Apostolos Hadzichristos – A Unique Greek Voice'', (4CD), JSP Records, 2011. * ''From Tambouras to Bouzouki The History and Evolution of the Bouzouki and its First Recordings (1926–1932)'', Orpheum Phonograph ORPH-01 , 2013. * ''Great Voices of Constantinople 1927–1933'', Rounder Records, 1997. * ''Greek-Oriental Rebetica-Songs & Dances in the Asia Minor Style:The Golden Years'', Arhoolie Records, 1991. * ''Greek Rhapsody – Instrumental Music from Greece 1905–1956'', (2CD & book) Dust-To-Digital DTD-27, 2013. * ''Marika Papagika – Greek Popular and Rebetic Music in New York 1918–1929'', Alma Criolla Records, 1994. * ''Markos Vamvakaris, Bouzouki Pioneer, 1932–1940'', Rounder Records, 1998. * ''Markos Vamvakaris, Master of Rembetika – Complete Recordings 1932–1937, plus selected recordings 1938'', (4CD), JSP Records, 2010 * ''Mortika – Rare Vintage Recordings from a Greek Underworld'', ARKO records, Uppsala, 2005. CD and book, also issued as 2LP box by Mississippi Records, 2009. * ''Mourmourika: Songs of the Greek Underworld'', Rounder Records, 1999. * ''My Only Consolation: Classic Pireotic Rembetica 1932–1946'', Rounder Records, 1999. * ''Rembetica: Historic Urban Folk Songs From Greece'', Rounder Records, 1992. * ''Rembetika: Greek Music from the Underground'', JSP Records, 2006. * ''Rembetika 2: More of the Secret History of Greece's Underground Music'', JSP Records, 2008. * ''Rebetiki Istoria'', EMIAL-Lambropoulos, Athens 1975–76 – LP series in six volumes, later also issued on cassettes and CDs. * ''Roza Eskenazi – Rembetissa'', Rounder Records, 1996. * ''The Rough Guide to Rebetika'', World Music Network, 2004. * ''Vassilis Tsitsanis – All the pre-war recordings'', 1936–1940 (5CD), JSP Records, 2008. * ''Vassilis Tsitsanis – The Postwar Years 1946–1954'', (4CD), JSP Records, 2009. * ''Women of Rembetica'', Rounder Records, 2000. * ''Women of Rembetika'', (4CD), JSP Records, 2012. * Various – ''The Diaspora Of Rembetiko'', Network Medien, (2CD), compilation, 2004

Notes

The word ''dromos'' means 'path' or 'road'. ''Piraeotiko dromos'' is named after the harbour town of

, and the terms ''matzore'' () and ''minore'' () are loosely used in order to include the Western major and

minor scale In music theory, the minor scale is three scale patterns – the natural minor scale (or Aeolian mode), the harmonic minor scale, and the melodic minor scale (ascending or descending) – rather than just two as with the major scale, which ...

variations within the category of ''dromoi''. A further genre term has recently seen the light as a result of this entente. ''Paradosiaká'', a word which originally simply means "traditional", is nowadays used to refer to a fairly narrow urban musical form which has emerged in Greece since the 1970s, and which almost exclusively employs the instruments and musical language of Ottoman art music. For a detailed examination of this phenomenon, see Eleni Kallimopoulou, ''Paradosiaká: Music, Meaning and Identity in Modern Greece''. Ashgate, 2009. Although Petropoulos, for example, divides the history of the style into three periods: * 1922–1932 – the era when rebetiko emerged from its roots with the mixture of elements from the music of

and

mainland Greece Greece is a country of the Balkans, in Southeastern Europe, bordered to the north by Albania, North Macedonia and Bulgaria; to the east by Turkey, and is surrounded to the east by the Aegean Sea, to the south by the Cretan and the Libyan Seas, ...

, * 1932–1942 – the classical period, * 1942–1952 – the era of discovery, spread, and acceptance; this division, though possibly useful as a rough guide, is slightly misleading as it excludes not only the unknowable pre-sound recording era, but the relatively few, but no less significant, recordings made during the first two decades of the 20th century. The term ''"Smyrneïka"'' is slightly misleading, as it is used to refer to the urban Ottoman-Greek café music styles not only of Smyrna but of Constantinople/Istanbul and other cities, and even to American recordings by artists with no connection to Smyrna. Stathis Damianakos has argued that the rebetiko songs of this first period were mostly the musical expression of the

lumpenproletariat In Marxist theory, the ''Lumpenproletariat'' () is the underclass devoid of class consciousness. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels coined the word in the 1840s and used it to refer to the unthinking lower strata of society exploited by reactionary ...

References

External links

Markos Vamvakaris Autobiography for the first time in EnglishA unique live recording of Markos VamvakarisSe ''Xrono Rebetiko Kai Laiko''
(Audio file) A weekly syndicated Greek radio show on Rebetika hosted b
''Photi Sotiropoulos''
and written by Vlassis Kokonis
Rebetiko On-line
Offers a brief introduction in Greek and English, and a large photo collection. Listening facility at present disabled (7th Jan 2010)
Rembetiko Forum
A forum about the Rebetiko Music with many discussions containing valuable information.
Tous aux Balkans: Rebetiko songs lyrics and videos, further useful linksOriginal History of Greek rebetico
An official introduction in Greek, of Rebetico history
Rebetiko and folk music wiki
(in Greek) * Listen to an example o
Rebeticka
from Australia on australianscreen online {{Authority control Greek music Greek words and phrases Urban street dance and music Drug culture Cannabis music Underground culture Maqam-based music tradition Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity Folk music genres