Rebetiko Music of Greece

Rebetiko was formerly associated with the lower and poor classes, but later reached greater general acceptance as the rough edges of its overt subcultural character were softened and polished.

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Rebetiko, maybe came in the music of the larger Greek cities, most of them coastal, in present Greece and Asian Minor, showed up by the 1920s as the urban traditional music of Greek society’s outcasts.

The earliest Greek rebetiko composers (drug-users, refugees, itinerants and criminals) were scorned by normal society. They sang heartrending tales of drug abuse, prison and violence, usually accompanied by the bouzouki.

In the year 1923, after the populace exchange between Greece and Turkey, many ethnic Greeks from Asia Minor fled to Greece as a result of the Greco-Turkish war. They migrate in poor neighbourhoods in Piraeus, Thessaloniki and Athens. Many of these settlers were highly educated, like the songwriter, Panagiotis Toundas and Vangelis Papazoglou, composer and leader of Odeon Records’ Greek subsidiary, who are traditionally measured as the initiator of the Symyrna School of Rebetiko.

Another tradition from Smyrna that came along with the Greek refugees was the tekes opium den or hashish dens. Orchestras of men would sit in a circle and smoke hashish from a hookah, and improvised music of different types.

With the coming of the Metaxas dictatorship, rebetiko was represented due to the uncompromising lyrics. Hashish dens, bouzouki and baglamas were stopped, or at least playing in the eastern-style manner and scales.

Some of the earliest pioneers of Greek music such as the quartet of Anestis Delias, Stratos Payioumtzis, Markos Vamvakaris, and Yiorgos Batis came out of this music scene. Vamvakaris became probably the first well-known rebetiko artist after the beginning of his solo career. Other famous rebetiko songwriters and singers of this era (1940s) include Dimitris Gogos (also known as Bayanderas), Stelios Perpiniadis, Spyros Peristeris, Giannis Papaioannou, and Apostolos Hatzichristos.

The scene was soon popularized further by the stars such as Vassilis Isitsanis. His song became an anthem for the oppressed Greeks when it was composed in the year 1943 (during the Axis occupation of Greece during the World War II), sepsite the fact that it was not recorded until the year 1948. He was accompanied by female composers such as loanna Yiorgakopoulou, Marika Ninou, ans Sotritria Bellou. In the year 1953, Manolis Chiotis added a fourth pair of cords to the bouzouki, which allowed it to play as a guitar and set the stage for the future electrification of rebetiko. The final period of rebetiko (mid-1940s to 1953) also featured the appearance of night clubs as a means of fame music. By the late 1950s, rebetiko had dropped; it only survived in the way of Archontorebetiko, a refined pattern of rebetiko that was far better by the upper class than the folk form of the genre. The normal popularity of archontorebetiko paved the way for Entekhno and Laiko. In the 60s Manolis Chiotis fame the eight-string bouzouki and set the stage for the future electrification of rebetiko.

Rebetiko in its fundamental form was revived during the Junta of 1967 to 1974, when the Regime of the Coloneks banned it. After the end of the Junta, many revival orchestras (and solo musicians) arose. The most notable of them include Remebetiki Kompania, Babis Tsertos, Opisthodhromiki Kompania, Agathonas lakovidis and others.