The Hellenic Republic of Greece is located in southern Europe, bordering the Aegean Sea, Ionian Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea, between Albania and Turkey.
Greek Musical Genres
Rebetiko [also spelled rembetiko and rebetika], the “Greek blues”, is a musical genre that lies at the crossroads of East and West, an apt reflection of the region into which it was born. It evolved from the music that the refugees from Asia Minor brought with them to Greece in the 1920s and first emerged in the hash-dens and prisons of the harbor cities of Thessaloniki and Piraeus. It went on to give voice to the misery of the victims of the great “population exchange” between what had become Turkey and Greece. It was part of an underground subculture, on the verge of legality, a strong Eastern-sounding contrast to the West-oriented music cafes where tango and waltzes were played for the bourgeoisie.
The original rebetiko started to decline after World War II, but even though that world has vanished, its reminiscent spirit lingers in the songs that are interpreted with great passion until today. An intriguing characteristic of the general song repertoire of that time is that successful songs were often adopted and adapted by the different ethnic groups and styles; and so you will find recordings of different versions of the same song in Turkish, Greek and Ladino.
Thessaloniki, a 2300-year old city with a fascinating multicultural past and present, has been the breeding ground for rebetiko.
Rebetiko compilations: The Rough Guide to Rebetika
Greek Music books
Nine Eight – 12 Greek folk songs, a thorough documentation of some classic Greek folk-rebetika.
Greek Musicians
Alekos K. Vretos
Alkistis Protopsalti
Angélique lonatos
Areti Ketime
Evanthia Reboutsika
George Maggas (Yorgos Maggas)
Giorgos Maglaras
Haig Yazdjian
Kostis Avyssinos
Kostis Maraveyas
Kristi Stassinopoulou
Makis Ablianitis
Maria Farandouri
Martha Mavroidi
Matthaios Tsahourides
Michalis Nikoloudis
Mikis Theodorakis
Savina Yanatou
Stelios Petrakis
Takis Barberis
Vassilis Ketentzoglou
