Rebetiko

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Rebetiko, plural rebetika, (Greek ρεμπέτικο and ρεμπέτικα respectively), occasionally transliterated as Rembetiko, is the name for a type of urban Greek music.

The songs, often compared to genres like American blues, are full of grief, passion, romance, and bitterness. They are generally melancholic songs telling of the misfortunes of simple ordinary men. Many early rebetic songs were about drugs, especially hashish which led Rebetiko to be criminalized after the dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas in 1936. Damianakos Stathis noted that the rebetic songs of the first period were mostly the singing expression of lumpenproletariat. All the rebetika songs are for dancing, zeibekikos, aptalikos, chasapikos and servikos being very common but they also include tsifteteli, karsilamas, syrtos and other dance styles.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Prehistory 1.2 The mastery period 1.3 The "classical" period 2 Instruments 3 Famous performers 4 Video Example 5 See also 6 Further reading 7 External links

[edit] History

See also: Timeline of Rebetika

Elias Petropoulos, one of the principal historians of the rebetic style, 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.

[edit] Prehistory

The roots of rebetic song 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 rebetic song where the tavern, the ouzeri, the hashish den and also the prison.

[edit] The mastery period

1922 was the year of the Asia Minor Disaster, which was followed by population exchanges in accordance with the Treaty of Lausanne. Most Asia Minor Greek refugees were settled in the larger cites of Greece, among them many proffesional musicians bringing with them their music.

[edit] The "classical" period

Gradually the rebetiko variety acquired its own peculiar character. In 1932, the first recordings with bouzouki arrived, made by Markos Vamvakaris. In 1936 began the dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas and with it, the onset of censorship.

Consequently the album was sanitized and the references to narcotics, opium, etc. vanished from the recordings. Yet the recording of illicit themes continued, for in that period a great number of Greeks emigrated to the United States, and with the emigrants went their rebetika. Many noteworthy songs were recorded, by the likes of Spyros Peristeris, Panagiotis Tountas, Ioannis Papaioannou, Vassilis Tsitsanis, Manolis Hiotis and Stratos Pagioumtzis to name a few.

[edit] Instruments

The basic instruments of the rebetic song are the bouzouki and the Guitar. Additional instruments used include the Baglamas, tambourine, violin, accordion, finger-cymbals (comparable to castanets). In a few older recordings, something like clattering glass may be heard. It is a matter of some debate whether the sound is produced by the striking of worry beads against a drinking glass. Some manges are in the habit of making the sound in their music with that method, a practice which was passed on and occurs in some modern recordings.

[edit] 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)

[edit] Video Example

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

[edit] 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)

[edit] 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, 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. Athens, 1968.

[edit] External links

• MondoGreco.net
• Se Xrono Rebetiko Kai Laiko (Audio file) A weekly syndicated Greek radio show on Rebetika music hosted by Photi Sotiropoulos and written by Vlassis Kokonis
• Rebetiko On-lineThere you can read a brief introduction in Greek and English, see many photos and listen 24h a day live rebetika music
• Falireas Productions - Greek Traditional MusicGreek record label specializing in traditional Greek music styles such as rebetiko, smyrnaiko, music from Epirus etc.
• Achilles Polonos - Neden Geldim Amerika'ya(Turkish Lyrics)
• "Damn Society", an article on rebetiko

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