Rebetiko

Rebetiko, plural rebetika, (Greek: ρεμπέτικο, and ρεμπέτικα respectively), occasionally transliterated as Rembetiko, is a term used today to designate originally disparate kinds of urban Greek folk 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.

Definition and etymology

The word rebetiko or plural rebetika is generally assumed to be an adjectival form derived from the Greek word rebetis (, ). The word rebetis, is today construed to mean a person who embodies aspects of character, dress, behavior, morals and ethics associated with a particular subculture..The word is closely related, but not identical in meaning, to the word mangas, (, ), which means strong Greek guy. The etymology of the word rebetis remains the subject of dispute and uncertainty; an early scholar of rebetiko, Elias Petropoulos, and the modern Greek lexicographer Giorgos Babiniotis, both offer various suggested derivations, but leave the question open.

Musical bases of rebetiko

Rebetiko is a kind of Greek cultural music that developed around ports and urban centres in the end of the 19th and up to the first half of the 20th century, with the bouzouki as its main instrument. Although nowadays treated...
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