Rebetiko

Rebetiko, plural rebetika, (Greek ρεμπέτικο and ρεμπέτικα respectively), occasionally transliterated as Rembetiko, is the name for a type of Greek urban folk music. A roots music form of sorts, the sound of the genre reflects the combined influences of European and Middle Eastern music. Rebetiko music has sometimes been called the Greek blues, since like the blues, it grew out of a specific urban subculture and reflected the harsh realities of an oppressed subculture's lifestyle: poverty, alienation, crime, drink, drugs prostitution, and violence. But rebetiko's subject matter also extends to other subjects: romance and passion, social matters, people such as the mother, death, the difficulties of living in a foreign country, army life, war, trivial matters of everyday life, exotic places, poverty, labor, illnesses, and the minor sorrows of people. Also like the blues, rebetiko progressed from being a music associated with the lower classes to becoming during the 1960s and later a revived musical form of wide popularity, especially among younger people.

All the rebetiko songs are based on traditional Greek or Anatolian dance rhythms, zeibekikos, aptalikos, chasapikos and servikos being very common but they also include tsifteteli, karsilamas, syrtos and other dance styles.

History

"See also: Timeline of Rebetika"

Elias Petropoulos, one of the principal historians of the rebetiko, divides the history of the style into three periods:
* 1922–1932 — the era when rebetika emerged from its roots with the mixture of elements from the music of Asia Minor
* 1932–1942 — the classical period
* 1942–1952 — the era of discovery, spread, and acceptance.

The roots of rebetiko music may be found in the music of the bigger Greek cities, most of them coastal, in today's Greece and Asia Minor. The cradles of rebetiko's precursor music were the taverna, the ouzeri, the hashish den, and the prison.

Rebetiko music properly speaking developed in the communities of Greek refugees from Asia Minor in the wake of the population exchange of 1923. These refugees settled primarily in Athens, Piraeus, and Thessaloniki. By combining the Anatolian musical modes they had been familiar with in Asia Minor with the native musical traditions they found in Greece proper, they created a type of music which reflected their dispossessed condition and their response to it . [Holst,Gail "Road to Rembetika" (Denise Harvey & Company, Athens, ) 3rd ed. 1983, pp. 24-27"]

Gradually rebetiko music acquired its own character. In 1932, the first recordings with bouzouki were made by Markos Vamvakaris. In 1936, the 4th of August Regime under Ioannis Metaxas was established and with it, the onset of censorship due to the disreputable subject matter of many early rebetiko songs. (Damianakos Stathis has argued that the rebetiko songs of this first period were mostly the musical expression of lumpenproletariat.)

Consequently, the song lyrics were sanitized and the references to drugs and other criminal or disreputable activities vanished from the recordings. Yet the recording of illicit themes continued, because during that period a great number of Greeks emigrated to the United States, and the emigrants took the rebetiko tradition with them. Many noteworthy songs were recorded in America by rebetiko performers such as Spyros Peristeris, Panagiotis Tountas, Ioannis Papaioannou, Vassilis Tsitsanis, Manolis Hiotis, Stratos Pagioumtzis and Roza Eskenazi, to name a few.

During the Axis occupation of Greece during World War II (1941-1944), no rebetiko recordings were made.

A leading personality in postwar rebetiko music was Vassilis Tsitsanis. After censorship's end, rebetiko became widely accepted. New singers such as Sotiria Bellou made their appearance. During the 1950s, however, rebetico music was generally eclipsed by other, more conventional types of popular music. The "first revival" period began in the 1960s, when older hits began being recorded once more. During the same period, writers such as Elias Petropoulos and Ntinos Christianopoulos published the biographies of famous rebetiko singers. Meanwhile, research on rebetiko began and anthologies and new recordings their appearance. The bouzouki, the basic musical instrument of rebetiko music, becomes widely accepted and is used by great composers such as Mikis Theodorakis and Manos Hadjidakis. Rebetiko songs are popular even today, and this musical genre is still a subject of international research and popularity.

Rebetiko in the USA

In the years following the Asia Minor Disaster and even before that, a great number of Greeks emigrated to the USA, bringing their Greek musical tradition with them. Since the beginning of the 19th century, American companies had recorded Greek music performed by these immigrants. The first American Greek recording enterprises made their appearance in 1919, and from the mid 20's there exist a number of recordings that can be classified as rebetiko, even before the beginning of the rebetiko recordings in Greece.

Instruments

against a drinking glass. Some "manges" are in the habit of making this sound in their music using that method, a practice which was passed on and occurs in some modern recordings.

Themes

Famous performers

*Achilles Polonos
*Rita Abatzi
*Apostolos Chatzikhristos
*Manolis Chrisafakis
*Anna Chrisafi
*Yiorgos Batis
*Soteria Belou
*Loukas Daralas
*Roza Eskenazi
*Mikhalis Genitsaris
*Babis Goles
*Dimitris Gogos (Bayanderas)
*Antonios Katinaris
*Maria Katinari
*Georgios Ksintaris
*Marika Ninou
*Marika Papagika
*Ioannis Papaioannou
*Vangelis Papazoglou
*Stratos Payoumtzis
*Stelios Perpiniadis
*Kostas Roukounas
*Kostas Skarvelis
*Yovan Tsaous (real name: Giannis Eitziridis)
*Prodromos Tsaousakis
*Vassilis Tsitsanis
*Markos Vamvakaris
*Marika Kanaropoulou (Tourkalitsa, Brousalia)

Video Example

http://www.youtube.com/v/rAMNRp3DAsA

See also

*"Rebetiko (film)" — a film by Costas Ferris
*Rebetes
*List of rebetic songs
*List of dances
*List of dances sorted by ethnicity
*Kanto (music)

Further reading

*Damianakos Stathis, "Κοινωνιολογία του Ρεμπέτικου" 2nd Edition. Athens, Plethron, 2001.
*Gauntlett Stathis, "Rebetika, Carmina Graeciae Recentoris". Athens, D. Harvey and Co., 1985.
*Hadjidakis Manos, "Ερμηνεία και θέση του ρεμπέτικου τραγουδιού". 1949.
*Holst-Warhaft Gail, [http://www.anagnosis.gr/index.php?pageID=41&la=eng&page=3 "Road to Rembetika: Music of a Greek sub-culture, songs of love, sorrow and hashish,"] Athens, Denise Harvey, 1989
*Kotarides Nikos, "Ρεμπέτες και ρεμπέτικο τραγούδι". Athens, Plethron, 1996.
*Kounades Panagiotis, "Εις ανάμνησιν στιγμών ελκυστικών". Athens, Katarti, 2000.
*Petropoulos Elias, "Ρεμπέτικα τραγούδια". 2nd ed., Athens, Kedros, 1983.
*Petropoulos Elias, "Songs of the Greek Underworld: The Rebetika Tradition." Trans. with introduction and add. text by Ed Emery. London, Saqui Books, 2000.

Notes

External links

* [http://www.mondogreco.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=188&Itemid=1"MondoGreco.net"]
* [http://www.greekradio.net/meta/rebetiko.wvx"Se Xrono Rebetiko Kai Laiko"] (Audio file) A weekly syndicated Greek radio show on Rebetika music hosted by [http://exploringmedia.com/about"Photi Sotiropoulos"] and written by Vlassis Kokonis
* [http://www.rebetiko.gr Rebetiko On-line] There you can read a brief introduction in Greek and English, see many photos and listen 24h a day live rebetika music
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLoekQOQ5RM Achilles Polonos - Neden Geldim Amerika'ya(Turkish Lyrics)]
* [http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/damn_soc.htm "Damn Society", an article on rebetiko]