Greek rock

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rock and roll spread around the world in the 1950s and 60s, entering Greece in the middle of the latter decade. Greek performers in the field include Jimi Quidd (born Jimmy Hatzidimitriou, later of The Dots and producer for Bad Brains), the Bob Dylan of Greece, Dionysios Savopoulos, who also plays rembetika and laika, and Pavlos Sidiropoulos, the most important representative of Greek folk-rock.

Greek rock first peaked in the early seventies, while Greece was still ruled by a military dictatorship. Bands include Socrates Drank the Conium (progressive hard rock with English lyrics), Exadaktylos (humorist-political lyrics), Peloma Bokiou (Santana-like Latin rock with Greek lyrics), Poll (folk with vocal harmonies, Greek lyrics).

The fall of the dictatorship was followed by a total cultural dominance of left wing intellectuals (though the government was still moderate right wing). For them, rock was an "imported" (xenoferto) form of music and they instead promoted music based on local traditions like Thodorakis's compositions.

Greek rock was revived at the end of the seventies, with the first punk and new wave bands as well as some older artists. The ex-frontman of Exadaktylos, Dimitris Poulikakos made an LP in 1976, and Sidiropoulos, ex-frontman of "Damon kai Fintias" and "Mpourmpoulia" in the early seventies made an LP with the new band Spyridoula.

At the beginning of the 80's there is a musical enrichment in the scene as more and more bands flourish, despite the extensive censorship on forms of art that in the later years gradually stopped. One example of this era is that of Mousikes Taksiarchies (Musical Brigades directly translated) with frontman Jimmis Panousis. The lyrical content of the band for the time was considered to vary from humorous and satyric to all-out criticizing mainly towards the political life of Greece, nevertheless the band played music with rich musical content with a mixture of many influences along with rock such as reggae and funk.

With the second generation, the scene produced also some of the finest electric guitar players such as Christophoros Krokidis and Spyros Pazios who to date are still active in various projects.

At mid 80's a band called The Last Drive appeared, whose outstanding performance both in Greece & internationally deeply influenced the scene.

The early nineties found Greek rock enriched with more modern sound but also with more younger bands that created also their personal styles and are favorite up to date. Some of them are Trypes (actually already active since the mid '80s), Xilina Spathia (both originating from Thessaloniki), Mora Sti Fotia (means: Babies on Fire, name inspired by Baby's on Fire song by Brian Eno), Diafana Krina, Endelexeia, Flowers of Romance, and others. Also bands like Pyx Lax and Katsimiha brothers that in no way are directly connected to rock music, contained elements of the genre but combined those with more acoustic/melodic and folk influences and hence becoming one of Greece's most successful artists. Some bands also had international acclaim with some airplay on MTV such as Magic De Spell with a song about the war in Yugoslavia, a very hard achievement regarding the lack of effective approach to the rest of Europe mainly because of the different language and minimum means.

By gradually changing the manner of expression from non-conformist (mainly due to the political situations) to a wider scale the Greek scene of rock didn't lose its musical richness. Constantly bands emerge that create very successful records and carry on without being forgotten as soon as airplay and promotion ceases. Such are the examples of Domenica, Raining Pleasure, Diafana Krina and others who take carefully elements from various musical movements and bring it to the spotlight in a modern and mostly successful way.

The Greek scene of rock as it has evolved nowadays is generally characterised by diversity. Rock/rock n'roll as a western European influence meets zeibekiko with blues and folk all of these elements being found throughout the creations of the -before-mentioned artists.

Nowadays many new school bands that many times become professionals bring new elements into the Greek scene of rock.These elements are mostly harder and have a more punk or metal sound.

World rock