rebetiko
A Greek urban folk music genre of the early 20th century, often called the "Greek blues," associated with the marginalized underclass of port cities.
In Depth
Rebetiko emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries among the Greek urban poor, refugees from Asia Minor, and the underworld of port cities like Piraeus, Thessaloniki, and Smyrna (now Izmir). Its themes — love, loss, poverty, hashish, prison, exile — reflected the lives of people on society's margins. The bouzouki and baglamas (a smaller relative) were its signature instruments, sometimes played in smoky tekes (hashish dens). Rebetiko's history parallels that of American blues and Argentine tango — all three genres arose among marginalized populations and were initially condemned by respectable society before being embraced as national cultural treasures. Key figures include Markos Vamvakaris, Vassilis Tsitsanis, and Sotiria Bellou. The genre was suppressed under the Metaxas dictatorship in the 1930s and again during the military junta of the 1960s–70s. A revival in the 1980s established rebetiko as a cornerstone of Greek cultural identity, and UNESCO added it to its Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2017.
Rebetiko musicians in the 1930s were routinely arrested for performing — the Metaxas dictatorship banned the music and even smashed bouzoukis confiscated from players.