From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs references that appear in reliable third-party publications. Primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject are generally not sufficient for a Wikipedia article. Please add more appropriate citations from reliable sources. (December 2008)

Rebetiko, plural rebetika, (Greek ρεμπέτικο and ρεμπέτικα respectively), occasionally transliterated as Rembetiko, is the name for a type of Greek urban folk music. A roots music form of sorts, the sound of the genre reflects the combined influences of European and Middle Eastern music. Rebetiko music has sometimes been called the Greek blues, since like the blues, it grew out of a specific urban subculture and reflected the harsh realities of an oppressed subculture's lifestyle: poverty, alienation, crime, drink, drugs prostitution, and violence. But rebetiko's subject matter also extends to other subjects: romance and passion, social matters, people such as the mother, death, the difficulties of living in a foreign country, army life, war, trivial matters of everyday life, exotic places, poverty, labor, illnesses, and the minor sorrows of people. A major theme of Rebetiko is the pleasure of using drugs, especially hashish. Rebetiko songs of this kind are called Χασικλίδικα (hasiklidika).^[1][2][3]. Also like the blues, rebetiko progressed from being a music associated with the lower classes to becoming during the 1960s and later a revived musical form of wide popularity, especially among younger people. Rebetiko music was closely associated with the mangas Greek urban subculture. Finally, rebetiko songs usually display the same chord progressions found in songs from classic Mississippi delta bluesmen like Robert Johnson and others^{[citation needed]}.

All the rebetiko songs are based on traditional Greek or Anatolian dance rhythms, zeibekikos, aptalikos, chasapikos and servikos being very common but they also include tsifteteli, karsilamas, syrtos and other dance styles.

The word "rebetiko/rebetika" is generally assumed to be an adjectival form from "rebetes" (singular: rebetis), which is more or less a synonym for "mangas" (plural: manges), but the etymology of "rebetes" has been the subject of dispute. Both the leading scholar of rebetiko, Elias Petropoulos, and the respected modern Greek lexicographer G. Babiniotis, while offering various suggested derivations, consider the word's true origin uncertain.^[4][5]