ETERNAL HELLENISM (3): REBETIKA MUSIC

During the summer months we are producing a three part series on the 5,000 year old culture of Greece. The first part is on what we coined "the Cosmic Story", a medium not simply relating a narrative, but a means to convey reality, wisdom and morality, rooted in the ancient myths about the gods and heroes and present to this day in songs, prose and poetry and yes, in the liturgy (link). Part two will deal with the architecture of the city of Athens and how it was able to grow into a metropolis of over three million people in a relatively short period of time. The final piece in the series is about the history of the music style called rebetiko, sometimes called the Greek version of blues.

July 4, 2024 Attika TV: Playlist - Ρεμπέτικο Βεράνι (Rebetiko Verani). 

Rebetiko (or transcribed as Rembetiko) is the name of the Greek urban, working class music style that appeared at the end of the 19th century in the ports of Greek cities like Piraeus, Thessaloniki and Volos, and in Smyrna and Constantinople in Asia Minor.

The style did not acquire its final form until the third decade of the 20th century. While largely shunned as low class music in Greece, the genre curiously became only popular after the first rebetika artists migrated to the United States and started recording their music.

These records found their way back to the homeland. Elias Petropoulos, who published a book on Rebetika in 1968, defines the genre as small, simple songs sung by ordinary people. Although primarily love songs, rebetika deep down carry social messages. 

Performers and aficionados used to have a lifestyle and use a lexicon of their own, with terms such as mangas, koutsavaki, rebetis, teke, etc. The modern moniker sex, drugs and rebetika might well be applied to the manga lifestyle as well. 

Lyrics and notes were often improvised and used dialect or slang to avoid being understood by the authorities. The word rebetis is probably of Turkish origin (rebet = rebel, disobedient). According to some interpretation, the word rebetis means vagabond.

Rebetika -- the Greek version of blues -- is performed in various levels of rawness. The playlist provides a number of samples, from  an all girls group in part 1to the thread bare canvass of part 4 on rebetika in America. Walk through the playlist by hitting the menu icon at the top right of the video. 

Many rebetika songs are zeimbekika, a dance traditionally performed by men, but in modern days also by many women. Regrettably the art of this dance is in danger of extinction, as many young people no longer seem to be able to learn the distinct style (video). 

Oct. 9, 2013 Ianos: Ο Γιάννης Κότσιρας στον Ιano - Τα μπλουζ των Βαλκανίων (Yannis Kotsiras Unplugged - The Balkan Blues).

External reading (plus historical videos)

* Folkdance Footnotes: Zeibekiko dance and Rebetika music (link)

* Mediterranean Palimpsest: Rebetika - An Historical Introduction (link)

Attika TV has more playlists in Rebetika related music:

* The rebetiko Kompania SUARE tells us what Rembetiko Verani means today (link)

* Tribute to the manges and the songs of magic (link)

* Tribute to the great performers of rebetiko (link)

1983 movie Rebetiko

The 1983 movie Rebetiko (IMDb) directed by Costas Ferris tells the story of a group of Rebetes, singers and musicians in the early decades of the 20th century, as seen through the eyes of a young female singer. Music by Stavros Xarchakos (IMDb) (link). Watch it on YouTube. 

ETERNAL HELLENISM:

1. The Cosmic Story (link)

2. The Architecture of Modern Athens (link)

- More on music videos, Greece, Hellenism -