Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
tion's spirit. The late Stelios Kazantzidis was the big voice of this era, along with Grigor-
is Bithikotsis.
Classically-trained composers Mikis Theodorakis and Manos Hatzidakis led a new
style known as
entehni mousiki
('artistic' music). They drew on
rembetika
and used in-
struments such as the bouzouki in more symphonic arrangements, and created popular
hits from the poetry of Seferis, Elytis, Ritsos and Kavadias.
Composer Yiannis Markopoulos later introduced rural folk-music and traditional in-
struments such as the
lyra, santouri,
violin and
kanonaki
into the mainstream, and
brought folk performers such as Crete's legendary Nikos Xylouris to the fore.
During the junta years the music of Theodorakis and Markopoulos became a form of
political expression (Theodorakis' music was banned and the composer jailed).
The sound of the bouzouki, immortalised in Mikis Theodorakis' 1960s soundtrack to
Zorba the Greek
, has become synonymous with Greece. The long-necked lute-like in-
strument became central to
rembetika
and dominates
laïka
.
Contemporary & Pop Music
While few Greek performers have made it big internationally - 1970s genre-defying
icons Nana Mouskouri and Demis Roussos remain the best known - Greece has a strong
local music scene, from traditional and pop music to Greek rock, heavy metal, rap and
electronic dance.
Some of the most interesting music emerging from Greece fuses elements of folk,
laïka
and
entehna
with Western influences. One of the most whimsical examples was
Greece's tongue-in-cheek 2013 Eurovision contender, in which
rembetika
veteran Aga-
thonas Iakovidis teamed up with the ska-Balkan rhythms of Thessaloniki's kilt-wearing
Koza Mostra.
Big names in contemporary Greek music include Dionysis Savopoulos, dubbed the
Bob Dylan of Greece, and veteran George Dalaras and Haris Alexiou.
Stand-out contemporary performers include Cypriot-born Alkinoos Ioannides,
Eleftheria Arvanitakiis, Savina Yannatou, and ethnic jazz fusion artists Kristi Stasino-
poulou, Mode Plagal and the Cretan-inspired Haïnides.
Mihalis Hatziyiannis is the current darling of the pop scene, while headline
laïka
per-
formers include Yiannis Ploutarhos, Antonis Remos and Thanos Petrelis.
