The bouzouki, also spelled buzuki or buzuci, is a musical instrument popular in Greece. It is a member of the long-necked lute family, with a round body with a flat top and a long neck with a fretted fingerboard. It has steel strings and is played with a plectrum producing a sharp metallic sound, reminiscent of a mandolin but pitched lower. There are two main types of bouzouki: the trichordo (three-course) has three pairs of strings and the tetrachordo (four-course) has four pairs of strings. The instrument was brought to Greece in the early 1900s by Greek immigrants from Anatolia, and quickly became the central instrument to the rebetiko genre and its music branches. It is now an important element of modern Laïko pop Greek music.
The music of Greece is as diverse and celebrated as its history. Greek music separates into two parts: Greek traditional music and Byzantine music, with more eastern sounds. These compositions have existed for millennia: they originated in the Byzantine period and Greek antiquity; there is a continuous development which appears in the language, the rhythm, the structure and the melody. Music is a significant aspect of Hellenic culture, both within Greece and in the diaspora.
The vast majority of the inhabitants of the United States are immigrants or descendants of immigrants. This article will focus on the music of these communities and discuss its roots in countries across Africa, Europe and Asia, excluding only Native American music, indigenous and immigrant Latinos, Puerto Rican music, Hawaiian music and African American music. The music of Irish- and Scottish-Americans will be a special focus, due to their extreme influence on Appalachian folk music and other genres. These sorts of music are often sustained and promoted by a variety of ethnic organizations.
Alphaville is a German synth-pop band which gained popularity in the 1980s. The founding members were lead singer Marian Gold, Bernhard Lloyd, and Frank Mertens. They achieved chart success with the singles "Forever Young", "Big in Japan", "Sounds Like a Melody", "The Jet Set" and "Dance with Me".
Vassilis Tsitsanis was a Greek songwriter and bouzouki player. He became one of the leading Greek composers of his time and is widely regarded as one of the founders of modern Rebetiko and Laiko music. Tsitsanis wrote more than 500 songs and is still remembered as an extraordinary composer and bouzouki player.
"Misirlou" is a folk song from the Eastern Mediterranean region, with origins in the Ottoman Empire. The original author of the song is not known, but Arabic, Greek and Jewish musicians were playing it by the 1920s. The earliest known recording of the song is a 1927 Greek rebetiko/tsifteteli composition influenced by Middle Eastern music. There are also Arabic belly dancing, Armenian, Persian, Indian and Turkish versions of the song. This song was popular from the 1920s onwards in the Arab American, Armenian American and Greek American communities who settled in the United States.
Rebetiko, plural rebetika, occasionally transliterated as rembetiko or rebetico, is a term used today to designate originally disparate kinds of urban Greek music which have come to be grouped together since the so-called rebetika revival, which started in the 1960s and developed further from the early 1970s onwards. Rebetiko briefly can be described as the urban popular song of the Greeks, especially the poorest, from the late 19th century to the 1950s.
Rock and roll entered Greece in the middle of the 1960s. Greek rock performers in the field include Pavlos Sidiropoulos, Dimitris Poulikakos. Well known globally Greek rock bands are "Aphrodite's Child", "Socrates drunk the Conium" and "The Last Drive".
Georgios(Giorgos)Dalaras, is a Greek musician and singer of international fame. He is widely considered among the most prominent figures of Greek contemporary musical culture, with more than 70 personal albums and with sales of more than 15 million records to date. He has been selected as a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency. He was born in Nea Kokinia, Piraeus. His father was Loukas Daralas, a singer of rebetiko.
Yiorgos Batis was one of the first rebetes influential to rebetiko music. His real name was Yiorgos Tsoros although he was known as Yiorgos Ampatis. He had a great love for music and musical instruments.
Márkos Vamvakáris, was a rebetiko musician. He is universally referred to by rebetiko writers and fans simply by his first name, Márkos. The great significance of Vamvakaris for the rebetiko is also reflected by his nickname: the "patriarch of the rebetiko".
Loukas Daralas (1927–1977) was born in Athens and is perhaps best known as the father of contemporary singer George Dalaras. He was a performer of Rebetiko music in Greece during the 1950s and early 1960s and is famous for the song "To Vouno", a well-known rebetiko song. He released the album Enas Rebetis.
Alexander Hacke is a guitarist, bass guitarist, singer, musician, record producer, writer and film maker from Germany. He is primarily known as a longtime member of the influential German industrial music group Einstürzende Neubauten.
Manolis Chiotis was a Greek rebetiko and laiko composer, singer, and bouzouki player. He is considered one of the greatest bouzouki soloists of all time. He popularised the four-course bouzouki (tetrachordo) and introduced the guitar-like tuning, who found it better suited to the kind of virtuoso playing he was famous for.
Sotiria Bellou was a Greek singer and performer of the rebetiko style of music. She was one of the most famous rebetisa of all, mentioned in many music guides, and a contributor to the 1984 British Documentary entitled Music of the Outsiders. On March 14, 2010, Alpha TV ranked Bellou the 22nd top-certified female artist in the nation's phonographic era.
Roza Eskenazi was a famous Jewish-Greek singer of rebetiko, Greek folk music, Kanto and Turkish folk music born in Constantinople, whose recording and stage career extended from the late 1920s into the 1970s.
Asteris Koutoulas was born in Oradea on 5 April 1960. He is a Berlin-based Greek-German event and music producer, publicist, translator, filmmaker and author. Asteris Koutoulas was the manager of Mikis Theodorakis and the event producer of Gert Hof. Koutulas rose to prominence as a director when his documentary fiction film "Recycling Medea: Not an Opera Ballet Film" won the Cinema for Peace Most Valuable Documentary Film Award in 2014.
Koza Mostra is a Greek rock band founded by Ilias Kozas in 2011. It consists of Ilias Kozas, Stelios Tsompanidis, Tasos Korkovelos, Dimitris Christonis, Tasos Gentzis and Petros Lagontzos. The band fuses ska, punk, and rock music together with the style of traditional Greek folk music such as Macedonian Greek music and rebetiko. They are also known for performing in kilts or fustanella.
Antonis Diamantidis, also known as Antonis Dalgas was a Greek musician. He was notable for his rebetiko songs. He was also a songwriter and best known as a singer.
Anestis Delias was a Greek bouzouki player, composer and singer of rebetiko, also known with the nicknames Anestaki (Ανεστάκι) or Artemis (Αρτέμης).
