Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
REMBETIKA: THE GREEK BLUES
Known as the Greek 'blues',rembetikaemerged in Greece's urban underground
and has strongly influenced the sound of Greek popular music
Two styles make up what is broadly known asrembetika.Smyrneikaor Café
Aman music emerged in the mid- to late-19th century in the thriving port cities of
Smyrna and Constantinople, which had large Greek populations, and in Thes-
saloniki, Volos, Syros and Athens. With a rich vocal style, hauntingamanedhes(vo-
cal improvisations) and occasional Turkish lyrics, its sound had more Eastern influ-
ence. Predominant instruments were the violin,outi(oud), guitar, mandolin,kan-
onakiandsantouri(a flat multistringed instrument). The second style, dominated
by the six-stringed bouzouki, evolved in Piraeus.
After the influx of refugees from Asia Minor in Piraeus following the 1922 popula-
tion exchange (many also went to America, whererembetikawas recorded in the
1920s), the two styles somewhat overlapped andrembetikabecame the music of
the ghettos. Infused with defiance, nostalgia and lament, the songs reflected life's
bleaker themes and themanges(street-wise outcasts) who sang and danced in
thetekedhes(hash dens that inspired many songs).
In the mid-1930s, the Metaxas dictatorship tried to wipe out the subculture
through censorship, police harassment and raids ontekedhes. People were arres-
ted for carrying a bouzouki. Many artists stopped performing and recording,
though the music continued clandestinely. After WWII a new wave ofrembetika
emerged that eliminated much of its seedy side.
Rembetikalegends include Markos Vamvakaris, who became popular with the
first bouzouki group in the early 1930s, composers Vasilis Tsitsanis, Apostolos Kal-
daras, Yiannis Papaioannou, Giorgos Mitsakis and Apostolos Hatzihristou, and
songtresses Sotiria Bellou and Marika Ninou, whose life inspired Costas Ferris'
1983 filmRebetiko.
Interest in genuinerembetikarevived in the late 1970s to early 1980s - particu-
larly among students and intellectuals - and it continues to be rediscovered by
new generations.
Rembetikaensembles perform seated in a row and traditionally play acoustic-
ally. A characteristic feature is an improvised introduction called ataxim.
Laïka & Entehna
Laïka
(popular or urban folk music) is Greece's most popular music. A mainstream off-
shoot of
rembetika, laïka
emerged in the late 1950s and 60s, when clubs in Athens be-
came bigger and glitzier, and the music more commercial. The bouzouki went electric
and the sentimental tunes about love, loss, pain and emigration came to embody the na-
