Gypsy punk is the term used to describe a hybrid
musical genreA music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other types of music....
that crosses traditional
Roma musicRomani music is often referred to as Gipsy music.Typically nomadic, the Romani people have long acted as wandering entertainers and tradesmen. In all the places Romanies live—in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and northwest India— they have become known as musicians...
with
punk rockPunk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed the perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
and other brands of rebel music. The origin of the term is unknown, but bands playing Gypsy punk have existed at least since the 1990s. The term became well-known to a broader audience after the band
Gogol BordelloGogol Bordello is a multi-ethnic Gypsy punk band from the Lower East Side of New York City that formed in 1999 and is known for its theatrical stage shows. Much of the band's sound is inspired by Gypsy music, as its core members are immigrants from Eastern Europe...
released the album
Gypsy Punks: Underdog World StrikeGypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike is the third album by Gogol Bordello, released in 2005 by SideOneDummy Records.-Track listing:All lyrics by Eugene Hütz...
, with front man
Eugene HützEugene Hütz is the Ukrainian-born singer and composer of the critically-acclaimed New York Gypsy punk rock band Gogol Bordello. He is also a DJ and an actor....
describing their performance as a "Gypsy Punk Cabaret".
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Gypsy punk is the term used to describe a hybrid
musical genreA music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other types of music....
that crosses traditional
Roma musicRomani music is often referred to as Gipsy music.Typically nomadic, the Romani people have long acted as wandering entertainers and tradesmen. In all the places Romanies live—in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and northwest India— they have become known as musicians...
with
punk rockPunk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed the perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
and other brands of rebel music. The origin of the term is unknown, but bands playing Gypsy punk have existed at least since the 1990s. The term became well-known to a broader audience after the band
Gogol BordelloGogol Bordello is a multi-ethnic Gypsy punk band from the Lower East Side of New York City that formed in 1999 and is known for its theatrical stage shows. Much of the band's sound is inspired by Gypsy music, as its core members are immigrants from Eastern Europe...
released the album
Gypsy Punks: Underdog World StrikeGypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike is the third album by Gogol Bordello, released in 2005 by SideOneDummy Records.-Track listing:All lyrics by Eugene Hütz...
, with front man
Eugene HützEugene Hütz is the Ukrainian-born singer and composer of the critically-acclaimed New York Gypsy punk rock band Gogol Bordello. He is also a DJ and an actor....
describing their performance as a "Gypsy Punk Cabaret". The term has also been subject to the debate that it exploits Roma culture. Gogol Bordello have since insisted it was just the name of their album, which was then taken and used by the music press as a term to define the genre of their music and similar artists - not an offshoot term for authentic gypsy music.
Gypsy punk bands usually combine rock beats and instrumentation with more traditional Gypsy instrumentation such as
drumsA drum set is a collection of drums, cymbals and sometimes other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person . The term "drum kit" first became used in the 1700s in Britain...
,
tambourineThe tambourine or Marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils"...
,
accordionThe accordion is a portable box-shaped musical instrument of the hand-held bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox...
,
fiddleThe term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, including the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
,
trumpetThe trumpet is a musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BC...
, and
saxophoneThe saxophone is a conical-bored transposing musical instrument considered a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and are played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by Adolphe Sax in 1841...
. In addition, due to the varied ethnic makeup of the Gypsy culture, many bands sing in several different languages, often switching language multiple times within a single song.
Other Gypsy Punk bands
- Blackbird RAUM
Blackbird Raum is a band from Santa Cruz, California, where they have become a prominent part of the downtown street life. They are well known for their influence on Gypsy Punk but are generally considered to be the founders of a new genre...
- Gogol Bordello
Gogol Bordello is a multi-ethnic Gypsy punk band from the Lower East Side of New York City that formed in 1999 and is known for its theatrical stage shows. Much of the band's sound is inspired by Gypsy music, as its core members are immigrants from Eastern Europe...
- Balkan Beat Box
Balkan Beat Box is a world music group founded by ex-Gogol Bordello member Ori Kaplan, Tamir Muskat of Firewater and Big Lazy, and Tomer Yosef . As a musical project they often cooperate with a host of other musicians both in the studio as well as on stage...
- DeVotchKa
DeVotchKa is a four piece multi-instrumental and vocal ensemble that fuses Romani, Greek, Slavic, Bolero, Mariachi music with American punk and folk roots. They take their name from Anthony Burgess' Nadsat word for "young girl," which is itself derived from the Russian word of the same meaning...
- Di Nigunim
- Luminescent Orchestrii
- J.U.F.
- Mititika
- The Tower of Dudes
The Tower of Dudes are a Gypsy punk / folk-punk band based in Prague, Czech Republic, with five members from Canada, The United States of America, and England.-Compilation appearances:* "Prague Independent Music collective Plan 1A"-References:...
- Golem
Golem is a New York City-based klezmer band; most lyrics are belted out or wailed in Yiddish, Ladino, or Slavic languages. Golem's chief fan base of American 20- and 30-year-olds shows this self-described "Eastern European folk-punk band" to be on the forefront of a revival of Jewish culture in...
- The Barons of Tang
- Waiting For Guinness
- Mojo Juju & the Snake Oil Merchants
- Zydepunks
Zydepunks is an American band based in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded in 2003, they play a wide variety of multicultural music, including Cajun music and zydeco, Eastern European music, and punk rock. Their instrumentation includes vocals, violin, accordion, electric bass guitar, and drum...
- Kultur Shock
Kultur Shock is a Seattle-based gypsy punk band which specializes in mixing modern music like rock, metal and punk with traditional Balkan music.-Biography:...
- Jason Webley
Jason Webley is a musician who began as a busker, playing accordion in the streets of Seattle, but has since moved in-doors and on stage, playing venues and festivals all across the world. His music is a combination of folk, gypsy, punk, and sea shanties....
- Jabul Gorba
- Dorlene Love
Dorlene Love is a Swedish punk band based in Stockholm. They are known for their music which is a mix of punk and different kinds of folk music from East Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Dorlene Love started out as a punk band but after having played a lot on the streets, the folk music...
- The No Smoking Orchestra
- Alamaailman Vasarat
Alamaailman Vasarat is a cult avant-garde Finnish group. Their music covers a wide range of styles and influences and is therefore difficult to classify; on their official website they jokingly refer to their style as being "kebab-kosher-jazz-film-traffic-punk-music." Much of their music is...
- Romashka
- Beirut
Beirut is an American band. It began as the solo musical project of -year-old Santa Fe, New Mexico native Zachary Francis Condon, and later evolved into a band led by Condon. Their first performances were in May 2006, to support the release of their debut album, Gulag Orkestar...
- Black Ox Orkestar
Black Ox Orkestar is a European Jewish folk quartet of musicians from Montreal, Canada that formed in the summer of 2000 to explore their common Jewish heritage for sounds that could speak to them in the present.- Music :...
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