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Music of Greece



 
 
The musical legacy of Greece
Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkans. It has borders with Albania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the north, and Turkey to the east....
 is as diverse as its history
History of Greece

The history of Greece traditionally encompasses the study of the Greeks, the areas they ruled historically, and the territory now composing the modern state of Greece....
. Cypriot music
Music of Cyprus

The music of Cyprus includes a variety of classical, folk and popular genres. Recent trends have seen the rise of Ayia Napa, a resort, as a home for club music, similar in its evolution to that of the island Ibiza....
 has certain similarities to traditional Greek music
Music

Music is an art form whose media is sound organized in time. Common elements of music are pitch , rhythm , dynamics , and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture ....
, and their modern popular music scenes remain well-integrated.

Greek music history
Greek written history extends far back into Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece

The term Ancient Greece refers to the period of History of Greece lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman Republic conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth ....
, and was a major part of ancient Greek theater. Later, influences from the Roman Empire
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is a term that applies to the geopolitical region encompassing the easternmost part of the Europe. Throughout history and to a lesser extent today, parts of Eastern Europe has been distinguishable from Western Europe and other regions due to cultural, religious, economic, and historical reasons, even though there i...
 and the Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire and Eastern Roman Empire are conventional names used to describe the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on its capital of Constantinople....
 changed Greek music. In the 19th century, opera
Opera

Opera is an Performing arts in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work which combines a text and a musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition....
 composers, like Nikolaos Mantzaros
Nikolaos Mantzaros

BiographyNikolaos Halikiopoulos Mantzaros was a Greek people composer born in Corfu and the major representative of the so called Ionian School of music ....
 (1795 - 1872), Spyridon Xyndas
Spyridon Xyndas

Spyridon Xyndas or Spiridione Xinda was a Greece composer and guitarist, whose last name has also been transliterated as "Xinta", "Xinda", "Xindas", and "Xyntas"....
 (1812 - 1896) and Spyridon Samaras
Spyridon Samaras

Spyridon-Filiskos Samaras was a Greece composer particularly admired for his operas who was part of the generation of composers the heralded the works of Giacomo Puccini....
 (1861 - 1917) and symphonists, like Dimitris Lialios and Dionysios Rodotheatos revitalized Greek art music.






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The musical legacy of Greece
Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkans. It has borders with Albania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the north, and Turkey to the east....
 is as diverse as its history
History of Greece

The history of Greece traditionally encompasses the study of the Greeks, the areas they ruled historically, and the territory now composing the modern state of Greece....
. Cypriot music
Music of Cyprus

The music of Cyprus includes a variety of classical, folk and popular genres. Recent trends have seen the rise of Ayia Napa, a resort, as a home for club music, similar in its evolution to that of the island Ibiza....
 has certain similarities to traditional Greek music
Music

Music is an art form whose media is sound organized in time. Common elements of music are pitch , rhythm , dynamics , and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture ....
, and their modern popular music scenes remain well-integrated.

Greek music history


Greek written history extends far back into Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece

The term Ancient Greece refers to the period of History of Greece lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman Republic conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth ....
, and was a major part of ancient Greek theater. Later, influences from the Roman Empire
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is a term that applies to the geopolitical region encompassing the easternmost part of the Europe. Throughout history and to a lesser extent today, parts of Eastern Europe has been distinguishable from Western Europe and other regions due to cultural, religious, economic, and historical reasons, even though there i...
 and the Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire and Eastern Roman Empire are conventional names used to describe the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on its capital of Constantinople....
 changed Greek music. In the 19th century, opera
Opera

Opera is an Performing arts in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work which combines a text and a musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition....
 composers, like Nikolaos Mantzaros
Nikolaos Mantzaros

BiographyNikolaos Halikiopoulos Mantzaros was a Greek people composer born in Corfu and the major representative of the so called Ionian School of music ....
 (1795 - 1872), Spyridon Xyndas
Spyridon Xyndas

Spyridon Xyndas or Spiridione Xinda was a Greece composer and guitarist, whose last name has also been transliterated as "Xinta", "Xinda", "Xindas", and "Xyntas"....
 (1812 - 1896) and Spyridon Samaras
Spyridon Samaras

Spyridon-Filiskos Samaras was a Greece composer particularly admired for his operas who was part of the generation of composers the heralded the works of Giacomo Puccini....
 (1861 - 1917) and symphonists, like Dimitris Lialios and Dionysios Rodotheatos revitalized Greek art music. However, the diverse history of art music in Greece, which extents from the Cretan Rennaisance and reaches modern times, exceeds the aims of the present article, which is, in general, limited to the presentation of the musical form that the last few decades became synonymous to 'Greek music'. That is the 'Greek song' or, better, the 'song in Greek verse'.

Ancient Greece


In ancient Greece, mixed-gender choruses performed for entertainment, celebration and spiritual reasons. Instruments included the double-reed aulos
Aulos

An aulos or tibia was an ancient Greece musical instrument. Different kinds of instruments bore the name, including a single pipe without a reed called the monaulos , and a single pipe held horizontally, as the modern flute, called the plagiaulos , but the most common variety must have been a reed instrument....
 and the plucked string instrument
String instrument

A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones....
, the lyre
Lyre

The lyre is a string instrument well known for its use in classical antiquity and later. The recitations of the Ancient Greece were accompanied by lyre playing....
, especially the special kind called a kithara
Kithara

The kithara or cithara was an ancient Greek musical instrument in the lyre family. In modern Greek the word kithara has come to mean "guitar" ....
.

Music was an important part of education in ancient Greece, and boys were taught music starting at age six. Greek musical literacy created a flowering of development; Greek music theory
Music theory

Music theory is the field of study that deals with how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It identifies patterns that govern composer techniques....
 included the Greek musical mode
Musical mode

Mode is a term from Western music theory having three senses: the rhythmic relationship between long and short values in the late medieval period; in early medieval theory, Interval ; and, most commonly, a concept involving Musical scale and melody type ....
s, eventually became the basis for Western religious music
Religious music

Religious music is music performed or composed for religion use or through religious influence.A lot of music has been composed to complement religion, and many composers have derived inspiration from their own religion....
 and classical music.

Greece in the Roman Empire

Due to Rome's reverence for Greek culture, Roman music continued to use the Greek notational system.

Byzantium


The tradition of eastern liturgical chant, encompassing the Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
-speaking world, developed in the Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire and Eastern Roman Empire are conventional names used to describe the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on its capital of Constantinople....
 from the establishment of its capital, Constantinople
Constantinople

Constantinople was the empire capital of the Roman Empire , the Byzantine Empire , the Latin Empire , and the Ottoman Empire . Strategically located between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara at the point where Europe meets Asia, Byzantine Constantinople had been the capital of a Christendom empire, successor to ancient ancient Greece...
, in 330 until its fall
Fall of Constantinople

The Fall of Constantinople was a siege in which the Ottoman Empire under the command of Sultan Mehmed II attempted to capture the capital of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople which was defended by the army of Emperor Constantine XI....
 in 1453. It is undeniably of composite origin, drawing on the artistic and technical productions of the classical Greek age, on Jewish music, and inspired by the monophonic
Monophony

In music, monophony is the simplest of texture , consisting of melody without accompanying harmony. This may be realized as just one note at a time, or with the same note duplicated at the octave ....
 vocal music that evolved in the early Greek Christian cities of Alexandria
Alexandria

Alexandria , with a population of 4.1 million, is the second-largest city in Egypt, and is the country's largest seaport, serving about 80% of Egypt's imports and exports....
, Antioch
Antioch

Antioch on the Orontes was an ancient city on the eastern side of the Orontes River. It is near the modern city of Antakya, Turkey.Founded near the end of the 4th century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals, Antioch eventually rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the nearer East and was a cradle of gentile hi...
 and Ephesus
Ephesus

Ephesus was an ancient Greek city on the west coast of Anatolia, in the region known as Ionia during the period known as Classical Greece. It was one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League....
.

Greece during the Ottoman Empire (Rum music)


By the beginning of the 20th century, music-cafés were popular in Constantinople
Constantinople

Constantinople was the empire capital of the Roman Empire , the Byzantine Empire , the Latin Empire , and the Ottoman Empire . Strategically located between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara at the point where Europe meets Asia, Byzantine Constantinople had been the capital of a Christendom empire, successor to ancient ancient Greece...
 and Smyrna
Smyrna

Smyrna is an ancient city in Izmir in Turkey. Located at a central and strategic point on the Aegean Sea coast of Anatolia and aided by its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to prominence before the Classical Era....
, primarily owned by Greeks, alongside Jew
Jew

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
s and Armenia
Armenia

Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in South Caucasus between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea....
ns. The bands were led by a female vocalist, typically, and included a violin
Violin

The violin is a Bow string instrument with four strings usually tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest and highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which also includes the viola and cello....
 and a sandoúri
Santoor

The santoor is an Indian stringed musical instrument, believed to be derived from the Persian santur. It is also related to the Indian shata-tantri veena of earlier times....
. The improvised
Improvisation

Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings....
 songs typically exclaimed aman aman, which led to the name amanédhes or café-aman. Musicians of this period included Marika Papagika
Marika Papagika

Marika Papagika was a popular Greece singer in the early 20th century and one of the first Greek women singers to be heard on sound recordings....
, Agapios Tomboulis, Rosa Eskenazi, Rita Abatzi
Rita Abatzi

Rita Abatzi was a Greek rebetiko musician who began her career in the first part of the 1930s.She was born in Smyrna, Asia Minor, now Izmir, Turkey....
, Georgia Mitaki (??t???, not ??t???), Marika Frantzeskopoulou, Marika Kanaropoulou. This period also brought in the Rempetika movement, which featured in Smyrna (Izmir), and had local Smyrnaic, Byzantine, and Ottoman influences.

Folk music


Greek folk traditions are said to derive from the music played by ancient Greeks. There are said to be two musical movements in Greek folk music: Acritic songs
Acritic songs

The acritic songs are the heroic or epic poetry that emerged from 10th century Byzantine Empire, inspired by the almost continuous state of warfare with the Arabs in eastern Asia Minor....
 and Klephtic songs. Akritic music comes from the 9th century akrites
Akritoi

The Akritoi or Akritai were Greeks frontiersman guarding the Anatolia borders of the Eastern Roman Empire during most of the Byzantine period....
, or border guards of the Byzantine Empire. Following the end of the Byzantine period, klephtic music arose before the Greek Revolution, developed among the kleftes, warriors who fought against the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299?1923. It was Treaty of Lausanne by the Republic of Turkey, which was officially proclaimed on October 29, 1923....
. Klephtic music is monophonic
Monophony

In music, monophony is the simplest of texture , consisting of melody without accompanying harmony. This may be realized as just one note at a time, or with the same note duplicated at the octave ....
 and uses no harmonic
Harmony

In Western music, harmony is the use of different pitches simultaneously, and chord s, actual or implied, in music. The word is related to the word "harmonic" which implies related wavelengths of waves....
 accompaniment.

Paleá dhimotiká


Paleá dhimotiká ("old traditional (songs)" mainly from Peloponnese
Peloponnese

The Peloponnese or Peloponnesus is a large peninsula and Regions of Greece in southern Greece, forming the part of the country south of the Gulf of Corinth....
 and Thessaly
Thessaly

Thessaly is one of the 13 Peripheries of Greece of Greece, and is further sub-divided into 4 Prefectures of Greece. The capital of the periphery and traditional Regions of Greece is Larissa....
) are accompanied by clarinet
Clarinet

The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The name derives from adding the suffix -et meaning little to the Italian word clarino meaning a particular type of trumpet, as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet....
s, guitar
Guitar

The guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that is used in a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six Strings , but Tenor guitar, Seven-string guitar, Eight-string guitar, Ten-string guitar, Eleven-string guitar, Twelve-string guitar, Thirteen-string guitar and doubleneck guitar string guitars also exist....
s, tambourine
Tambourine

The tambourine or Marine is a musical instrument of the Percussion instrument family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils"....
s and violin
Violin

The violin is a Bow string instrument with four strings usually tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest and highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which also includes the viola and cello....
s, and include dance music forms like syrtó, kalamatianó
Kalamatianó

Kalamatian? is a type of music that befits a style of Greek dancing. For each Greek dance, you need to have a certain beat that is not too fast or too slow....
, tsámiko
Tsamiko

The Tsamiko is a popular traditional dance of Albania and Greece and is considered a national dance in both countries. The name literally means dance of the Chams, because it is the traditional dance of Cham Albanians....
 and hasaposérviko,as well as vocal music like kléftiko. Many of the earliest recordings were done by Arvanites like Yiorgia Mittaki and Yiorgios Papasidheris. Instrumentalists include clarinet virtuosos like Tasos Halkias, Yiorgos Yevyelis and Yiannis Vassilopoulos, as well as oud and fiddle players like Nikos Saragoudas and Yiorgos Koros.

Greek folk music is found all throughout Greece, as well as among communities in countries like the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, Canada
Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
 and Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
. The island of Cyprus
Cyprus

Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is an island country situated in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, east of Greece, west of Lebanon, Syria, and Israel, south of Turkey and north of Egypt....
 and several regions of Turkey
Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in southwest Asia and Thrace in the Balkans region of Southern Europe....
 are home to long-standing communities of ethnic Greeks with their own unique styles of music.

Nisiótika

Nisiótika is a general term denoting folk songs from the Aegean Islands. Among the most popular types of them is Ikariótiko traghoúdhi "song from Ikaria".

Ikariótiko
Ikariótikos
Ikariotikos

Ikariotikos is a traditional dance and accompanying song originating in the greece island of Ikaria. At first it was a very slow dance, but today Ikariotikos is a fast dance....
 is a traditional type of dance, and also the name of its accompanying type of singing, originating in the Aegean island of Ikaria. At first it was a very slow dance, but today Ikariotikos is a very quick dance. Some specialists say that the traditional Ikariotikos was slow and the quick "version" of it is in fact Ballos
Ballos

The Ballos Syrtos is one of the best known island dances in Greece; another version known as "Bur?ak tarlasi oyunu" in Turkey, is popular in Izmir, Tokat, Amasya and Yozgat regions....
. Music
Music

Music is an art form whose media is sound organized in time. Common elements of music are pitch , rhythm , dynamics , and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture ....
 and dancing are major forms of entertainment in Ikaria. Throughout the year Ikarians host baptisms, weddings, parties and religious festivals where one can listen and dance to live traditional Ikarian Music.

Modern Nisiótika
Artists such as Nikolas Hatzopoulos, Stella Konitopoulou, and the Mythos Band
Mythos Band

Mythos Band is a Greece band formed in 1998 and based in San Jose, California. The band's repertoire includes folk songs of mainland Greece, traditional Greek Island songs, modern Greek hits and American rock and roll; their songs prominently feature the bouzouki....
 helped Nisiótika gain occasional mainstream popularity during the 1990s and 2000s.

Cretan Music


Crete
Crete

Crete is the largest of the Greek islands and the List of islands in the Mediterranean largest island in the Mediterranean Sea at 8,336 km? ....
 is an island which is a part of Greece
Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkans. It has borders with Albania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the north, and Turkey to the east....
. The lýra is the dominant folk instrument on the island; it is a three-stringed bowed instrument similar to the Byzantine Lyra
Byzantine lyra

The Byzantine lyra , or Byzantine lira, or lyra, or lira was a Medieval music Bow string musical instrument in the Byzantine Empire and is considered as the ancestor of most European bowed instruments....
. It is often accompanied by the Cretian lute
Lute

Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....
 (laoúto), which is similar to both an oud
Oud

The oud is a pear-shaped, stringed instrument, which is often seen as the predecessor of the western lute, distinguished primarily by being without frets, commonly used in Middle Eastern music....
 and a mandolin
Mandolin

A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It is descended from the Mandora, a soprano member of the lute family. It has a body with a teardrop-shaped soundboard, or one which is essentially oval in shape, with a soundhole, or soundholes, of varying shapes which are open and are not decorated with an intricately carved grille lik...
. Nikos Xylouris, Antonis Xylouris (or Psarantonis
Psarantonis

Antonis Xilouris , nicknamed Psarantonis is a Greece composer, singer and Cretan lyra player. He comes from the village of Anoghia in Crete and is the younger brother of the late Nikos Xylouris, a notable Cretan singer/musician as well as the older brother of Yiannis Xylouris, an equally notable Cretan musician....
), Thanassis Skordalos
Thanassis Skordalos

Thanassis Skordalos was a musician from Crete, noted for playing the Cretan lyra.Skordalos was born in 10 December 1920 in the village Spili of ex-eparchy of Saint Basil, today the municipality of Lampi, in Rethimnon, Crete....
, Kostas Moundakis, and Vasilis Skoulas are among the most renowned players of the lýra.

Tabachaniotika
The "tabachaniotika
Music of Greece

The musical legacy of Greece is as diverse as its History of Greece. Music of Cyprus has certain similarities to traditional Greek music, and their modern popular music scenes remain well-integrated....
" (; sing.: tabachaniotiko - taµpa?a???t???) songs are a Cretan urban
Urban area

An urban area is an area with an increased Population density of human-created structures in comparison to the areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be city, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlet ....
 musical repertory which belongs to the wide family of musics, like the rebetiko
Rebetiko

Rebetiko, plural rebetika, , occasionally transliterated as Rembetiko, is the name for a type of Greece urban folk music. A roots music form of sorts, the sound of the genre reflects the combined influences of European music and Middle Eastern music....
 and music of the Café-aman, that merge Greek
Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkans. It has borders with Albania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the north, and Turkey to the east....
 and Eastern music elements. This genre represents an outcome of the Cretan-Minor Asia's Greek cultural syncretism in East Mediterranean Sea. It developed mainly after the immigration of Smyrna
Smyrna

Smyrna is an ancient city in Izmir in Turkey. Located at a central and strategic point on the Aegean Sea coast of Anatolia and aided by its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to prominence before the Classical Era....
's refugees in 1922, as did the more widespread rebetiko
Rebetiko

Rebetiko, plural rebetika, , occasionally transliterated as Rembetiko, is the name for a type of Greece urban folk music. A roots music form of sorts, the sound of the genre reflects the combined influences of European music and Middle Eastern music....
.

Various conjectures are advanced to explain the meaning and origin of the term "tabachaniotika". Kostas Papadakis
Kostas Papadakis

Kostas Papadakis was a popular Crete violinist, famous for playing Music of Crete . He was known as "Naftis" which, in Greek, literally means sailor....
 believes that it comes from tabakaniotikes (*taµpa?a???t??e?), which may mean places where hashish (taµp??? "tobacco") is smoked while music is performed, as was the case with the tekédes (te??de?; pl. of tekés) of Piraeus. But a quarter named Tabahana (?aµp??a?a) existed in Smyrna --a name which has the Turkish root tabak: tanner; tabakhane: tannery). In Chaniá
Chania

Chani? is the second largest city of Crete and the capital of the Chania Prefecture. It lies along the north coast of the island, about 70 km west of Rethymno and 145 km west of Heraklion....
 too, there was a quarter with the same name, where refugees from Smyrna lived after the 1922 diaspora. Tabachaniotiko was also the name of a song of the amané genre, which was popular in Smyrna in the period before 1922, together with some other songs called Minóre, Bournovalió, Galatá, and Tzivaéri (Kounadis 1993: 23). Compare the performance of Greek-Turkish ballos by a Greek ensemble in New York City in 1928, included in the online article on Mediterranean music in America by Karl Signell.

This detail might be critical for the history of Cretan tabachaniotika, since Cretans frequently had contacts with the people and music of Smyrna during the nineteenth century. Cretan musicians believe that the further development of Cretan tabachaniotika took place mainly after 1922, as a consequence of the refugees' resettlement. The genre was popular until the 1950s.

Music
Major features of the tabachaniotika songs are the following:
  • Dromoi (sing.: dromos - d??µ??), modal types designated by Turkish names, like rasti, houzam, hijaz, ousak, niaventi, and sabak.
  • Instrumental introduction before the song (taximi, pl.:, taximia), where the player explores the dromos.
  • Tsiftetéli rhythm, as in the Turkish "belly dance
    Belly dance

    Belly dance is a Western culture term for a traditional Egyptian dance form. Some American devotees refer to it simply as "Middle Eastern Dance." In the Egyptian Arabic language it is known as raqs sharqi or sometimes raqs baladi ....
    " music example heard in Signell's article.
  • Musical instruments like bouzouki
    Bouzouki

    The bouzouki is the mainstay of modern Greek music. It is a stringed instrument with a pear-shaped body and a very long neck. The bouzouki is a member of the 'long neck lute' family and is similar to a mandolin....
    , boulgarí (the Cretan version of the Turkish baglama
    Baglama

    The baglama is a string instrument musical instrument shared by various cultures in the Eastern List of islands in the Mediterranean, Near East, and Central Asia....
    , similar to the earliest forms of the bouzouki
    Bouzouki

    The bouzouki is the mainstay of modern Greek music. It is a stringed instrument with a pear-shaped body and a very long neck. The bouzouki is a member of the 'long neck lute' family and is similar to a mandolin....
    ), and baglamás.


Poetic text
The rebetiko
Rebetiko

Rebetiko, plural rebetika, , occasionally transliterated as Rembetiko, is the name for a type of Greece urban folk music. A roots music form of sorts, the sound of the genre reflects the combined influences of European music and Middle Eastern music....
 and "tabachaniotika" often share the political verse, that is, fifteen syllable lines divided into two hemistichs - ?µ?st???a (8+7), generally realized as couplets. In Crete such couplets are called mandinádes
Mantinada

A mantinada, — are Cretan rhyming couplets, typically improvised during Music_of_Crete. Rhymed Cretan poetry of the Renaissance, especially verse epic Erotokritos, are reminiscent of the mantinada, and couplets from Erotokritos have become used as mantinades....
 (µa?t???de?), as are extemporary texts sung to the music of dances, mainly the syrtós
Syrtos

Syrtos is the name of a group of Greece folk dances of ancient origin. The syrto is the most popular dance throughout Greece, and is danced by Greek-Americans at all festive gatherings....
, and the kondyliés (?? ???t?????).

They focus mainly on the themes of existential grief and lost love, also common to the rebetiko
Rebetiko

Rebetiko, plural rebetika, , occasionally transliterated as Rembetiko, is the name for a type of Greece urban folk music. A roots music form of sorts, the sound of the genre reflects the combined influences of European music and Middle Eastern music....
. Songs making fun of Turks, narrative songs, and other songs in dialogue form also belong to this repertory.

Unlike rebetiko
Rebetiko

Rebetiko, plural rebetika, , occasionally transliterated as Rembetiko, is the name for a type of Greece urban folk music. A roots music form of sorts, the sound of the genre reflects the combined influences of European music and Middle Eastern music....
 (which is described below), the "tabachaniotika" did not considered underground music and was only sung, not danced, according to Nikolaos Sarimanolis, the last living performer of this repertory in Chaniá. Only a few musicians played the "tabachaniotika", the most famous being the boulgarí (a mandolin like instrument) player Stelios Foustalierakis "Phoustalieris" (1911-1992) from Rethymnon. Stelios Foustalieris bought his first boulgarí in 1924. In 1979, he said that in Rethymnon, the boulgarí had been widespread during the 1920s; in every tavern
Tavern

A tavern or pot-house is, loosely, a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and, more than likely, also be served food, though not licensed to put up guests....
 one could find a boulgarí, and people played and sang lovesongs. He said the boulgarí was then the main accompanying instrument of the lyra, together with the mandola. The laouto began spreading in Rethymnon not before the 1930s. Foustalieris played for years as accompanist to the lyrist Antonis Kareklás (in feasts and weddings) and performed any kind of repertory (syrtós, pendozália, pidichtá kastriná, taximia, kathistiká (lit.: "sitting-down songs", i.e. music for listening, not for dancing), and even rebetiko). Later, he began playing the boulgarí, as a melodic instrument, with the accompaniment of guitar or mandolin. He also played in a group with musicians (refugees from Asia Minor), who played the outi and sandouri. Foustalieris composed also many songs and recorded them in Rethymnon. In the period 1933–1937 he lived in Piraeus and played together with famous rebetes
Rebetes

A rebetis is a musician involved in the scene of the Greek musical genre of rebetiko, which flourished between 1920 and 1955.Prominent rebetes include:...
, like Markos Vamvarakis. He may be considered a musician who merged the musics of Crete, Asia Minor, and Piraeus (see Liavas 1988).

Notwithstanding the dearth of performers, "tabachaniotika" songs were widespread and could also be performed at domestic gatherings. Notable artists of this genre who were originally refugees from Asia Minor include the bouzouki
Bouzouki

The bouzouki is the mainstay of modern Greek music. It is a stringed instrument with a pear-shaped body and a very long neck. The bouzouki is a member of the 'long neck lute' family and is similar to a mandolin....
 player Nikolaos Sarimanolis (??????? Sa??µa?????; born in Nea Ephesos
Kusadasi

Kusadasi is a resort town on Turkey's Aegean Sea coast and the center of the seaside district of the same name in Aydin Province. Kusadasi lies at a distance of to the south from the region's largest metropolitan center of Izmir, and from the provincial seat of Aydin situated inland....
 in 1919) as a member of a folk-group founded by Kostas Papadakis in Chaniá in 1945, Antonis Katinaris (also based in Chaniá), and the Réthymno
Rethymno

Rethymno , a city of approximately 40,000 people, is the capital of Rethymno Prefecture in the island of Crete. It was built in antiquity , even though was never a competitive Minoan center....
-based Mihalis Arabatzoglou and Nikos Gialidis.

Cretan music in media
The music theme Zorba's dance by Mikis Theodorakis
Mikis Theodorakis

Mikis Theodorakis is one of the most popular Greek composers. He is known internationally for his scores in the films, Zorba the Greek , Z , and Serpico ....
 (incorporating elements from the syrtos dance) which appears in the Hollywood 1964 movie Zorba the Greek
Zorba the Greek

Zorba the Greek is a 1964 in film based on the novel Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis. The film was directed by Michael Cacoyannis and the title character was played by Anthony Quinn....
 remains the most well-known Greek song abroad.

Modern Cretan music
The Cretan musical tradition in its pure form is followed today by several contemporary artists such as the Chainides
Chainides

Chainides is a Cretan folk music group who are inspired bythe vast legacy of traditional Music of Crete and whose lyrics borrow wordsfrom the Cretan Greek....
, Loudovikos ton Anogion, and Giannis Charoulis. Occasionally, it reaches mainstream popularity through the work of artists such as Etsi De and Manos Pyrovolakis who mix its original form with popular music.

Other folk traditions

The other major regional musical traditions of Greece are:
  • Music of Epirus
    Music of Epirus

    The music of Epirus in the northwest of Greece contains folk songs that are mostly pentatonic and polyphonic, sung by both male and female singers. Distinctive songs include lament songs , shepherd's songs and drinking songs ....
  • Music of Macedonia
    Music of Macedonia

    The music of Macedonia , a loosely defined geographical region of southeastern Europe extending across Greece, Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria with minor parts in Albania, Kosovo and Serbia, reflects strands or blends of mostly Greek, Byzantine, Ottoman, Slavic, Albanian, 'Yugoslav' and Gypsy traditions....
  • Music of Thrace
    Music of Thrace

    Music of Thrace is the music of Thrace, a region in Southeastern Europe spread over southern Bulgaria , northeastern Greece , and European Turkey ....


Popular music

Being largely unaffected by the developments of the European Renaissance
Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe....
, due to the Ottoman occupation that lasted nearly four centuries, the first liberated Greeks were anxious to catch up with the rest of Europe. The flourishing Greek culture of the Ionian islands, which were under the Italian rule and influence, was in sharp contrast to the Ottoman cultural poverty. It was through these islands that all the major advances of the European music were introduced to mainland Greeks. The songs of the islands known as Heptanesian
Ionian School (music)

The term Ionian School of Music denotes the musical production of a group Heptanesian composers, whose heyday was from the early 19th century till approximately the 1950s....
 kantádhes
Greek folk music

Greek folk music includes a variety of styles played by Greek peoples in Greece, Cyprus, the United States and elsewhere. Apart from the common music found all-around Greece, there are distinct types of folk music, sometimes related to the history or simply the taste of the specific places....
 "seranades" are based on the popular Italian style music of the early 19th century. Kantádhes became the forerunners of the Greek modern song, influencing its development to a considerable degree. For almost all the next century most later attempts for musical composition had to borrow elements from the Heptanesian style.

Early popular songs

The most successful songs during the period 1870–1930 were the so-called Athenian songs, the serenades and the songs performed on the Athenian stage in revue
Revue

A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatre entertainment that combines music, dance and sketch comedy. The revue has its roots in nineteenth-century American popular entertainment and melodrama, but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from ca....
s and operetta
Operetta

Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre....
s that dominated the Athenian theatres. Despite the fact that the Athenian songs were not autonomous artistic creations (in contrast with the serenades) and despite their original connection with mainly dramatic forms of Art, they eventually became hits as independent songs. Italian opera had a great influence on the musical aesthetics of the Modern Greeks.

After 1930, wavering among American and European musical influences as well as the Greek musical tradition, the Greek composers begin to write music to the tunes of the Tango
Tango

Tango in its most general sense within dance or music can refer to:* Tango music , a style of music that originated among European immigrant populations of Argentina and Uruguay...
, the Samba
Samba

Samba is a Brazilian musical genre derived from African and European roots. It is worldwide recognized as a symbol of Brazil and Brazilian Carnival....
, and the Waltz
Waltz

The waltz is a ballroom dance and folk dance dance in Time signature, performed primarily in closed position....
 as well as the melodies that refer to Athenian serenades (????a???? ?a?t?de?) and the theatrical revue songs.

Artists
(1910s-1940s) (in these lists the term 'artists' mostly denotes 'performers' unless indicated otherwise)
  • Alkis Pagonis
  • Attík
  • Danai Stratigopoulou
  • the Kalouta sisters (Anna and Maria)
  • Kostas Giannidis (composer)
  • Nikos Hatziapostolou (composer of Greek Operettas and Athenian serenades)
  • Panos Samis
  • Sophía Vémpo
  • Theophrastos Sakellaridis
    Theophrastos Sakellaridis

    Theophrastos Sakellaridis, was a Greeks composer, Conductor and author of Greek Operetta.He was born in Athens on 7 September 1882.He took his first courses of music by his father, Ioannis Sakellaridis ....
     (composer of Greek Operettas)


Rebetiko


Rebetiko
Rebetiko

Rebetiko, plural rebetika, , occasionally transliterated as Rembetiko, is the name for a type of Greece urban folk music. A roots music form of sorts, the sound of the genre reflects the combined influences of European music and Middle Eastern music....
 evolved from traditions of the urban poor. Refugees and drug-users, criminals and the itinerant, the earliest rebetiko
Rebetiko

Rebetiko, plural rebetika, , occasionally transliterated as Rembetiko, is the name for a type of Greece urban folk music. A roots music form of sorts, the sound of the genre reflects the combined influences of European music and Middle Eastern music....
 musicians were scorned by mainstream society. They sang heartrending tales of drug abuse, prison and violence, usually accompanied by the instrument called bouzouki
Bouzouki

The bouzouki is the mainstay of modern Greek music. It is a stringed instrument with a pear-shaped body and a very long neck. The bouzouki is a member of the 'long neck lute' family and is similar to a mandolin....
 (pl.: bouzoukia) (a sort of lute
Lute

Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....
 derived from the Byzantine
Byzantine music

Byzantine music is the music of the Byzantine Empire composed to Greek texts as ceremonial, festival, or church music. Greek and foreign historians agree that the ecclesiastical tones and in general the whole system of Byzantine music is closely related to the ancient Greek music....
 tambourás and related to the Turkish saz
Saz

Saz may refer to:* Baglama* The rap artist Sameh Zakout...
).

In 1923, many ethnic Greeks from Asia Minor fled to Greece as a result of the second Greco-Turkish War
Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922)

The Greco-Turkish War of 1919?1922, also called the War in Asia Minor, or the Greek campaign of the Turkish War of Independence, was a series of military events occurring during the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire after World War I between May 1919 and October 1922....
. They settled in poor neighborhoods in Piraeus
Piraeus

Piraeus is a city in the periphery of Attica, Greece, and a municipality within Athens urban area, located 10 km southwest of its center....
, Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki , Thessalonica, or Salonica is the List of largest cities and second largest cities by country in Greece and the capital of Macedonia , the nation's largest Regions of Greece....
, and Athens
Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
. Many of these immigrants were highly educated, such as songwriter
Songwriter

File:Beethoven.jpgA songwriter is someone who writes the lyrics, as well the musical composition or melody to songs. One who writes only lyrics is a lyricist, while one who writes only music is a composer....
 Vangelis Papazoglou, and Panagiotis Tountas, composer and leader of Odeon Records
Odeon Records

Odeon Records was a record label founded by Max Strauss and Heinrich Zunz in Berlin, Germany. It was named after a famous theatre in Paris, whose classical dome appears on the Odeon record label....
' Greek subsidiary, who are traditionally considered as the founders of the Smyrna School of Rebetiko.

A Turkish tradition that came along with the Greek migrants was the tekés "opium den", or hashish
Hashish

Hashish is a preparation of cannabis composed of the compressed trichomes collected from the cannabis plant. It contains the same active ingredients but in higher concentrations than other parts of the plant such as the buds or the leaves....
 dens. Groups of men would sit in a circle and smoke hashish from a hookah
Hookah

A hookah is a single or multi-stemmed water pipe for smoking. Originally from alongside the borders of India and Pakistan, the hookah has gained immense popularity, especially in the Middle East....
, and improvised music of various kinds. With the coming of the Metaxas
Metaxas

Metaxas may refer to:* Metaxas Line, a chain of fortifications constructed along the line of the Greco-Bulgarian border* Metaxas, Greece, a village in Servia, Kozani Prefecture, in the Greek region of Macedonia...
 dictatorship, rebetiko
Rebetiko

Rebetiko, plural rebetika, , occasionally transliterated as Rembetiko, is the name for a type of Greece urban folk music. A roots music form of sorts, the sound of the genre reflects the combined influences of European music and Middle Eastern music....
 was repressed due to the uncompromising lyrics. Hashish dens and bouzoukia were banned. Many songs from this period were composed in prison, where musicians would devise instruments out of scavenged equipment.

After World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
, rebetiko
Rebetiko

Rebetiko, plural rebetika, , occasionally transliterated as Rembetiko, is the name for a type of Greece urban folk music. A roots music form of sorts, the sound of the genre reflects the combined influences of European music and Middle Eastern music....
 became a "calmer" form of music. Out of this music scene came out some of the earliest legends of Greek Oriental music, such as the quartet of Markos Vamvakaris
Markos Vamvakaris

Markos Vamvakaris , was a rebetiko musician. He is universally referred to by rebetiko writers and fans simply by his first name, Markos....
, Artémis (pseudonym
Pseudonym

A pseudonym, , is a fictitious alternative to a person's legal name. In some cases, pseudonyms are adopted because it is part of a cultural or organizational tradition, as in the case of Religious names used by members of some religious orders and "cadre names" used by Communist party leaders such as Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin....
 of ???st?? or ???st?? ?e????), Stratos Payioumtzis, and Batis
Yiorgos Batis

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....
. Vamvakaris became perhaps the first renowned rebetiko
Rebetiko

Rebetiko, plural rebetika, , occasionally transliterated as Rembetiko, is the name for a type of Greece urban folk music. A roots music form of sorts, the sound of the genre reflects the combined influences of European music and Middle Eastern music....
 musician after beginning a solo career.

Other popular rebetiko songwriters and singers of this period (1940s) include: Dimitris Gogos (better known as Bayandéras), Stelios Perpiniadis
Stelios Perpiniadis

Stelios Perpiniadis , better known as Stellakis , was a Greek folk musician who wrote, sang, and played guitar in the rebetiko style. He was the father of another well-known Greek folk musician, Vangelis Perpiniadis....
, Stratos Payioumtzis, Giannis Papaioannou
Giannis Papaioannou

Giannis Papaioannou was a famous Greek musician and composer born in Gemlik . In English his name is sometimes romanized as Yannis, Ioannis or Yiannis....
, Giorgos Mouflouzelis, and Apostolos Hatzichristos.

The scene was soon popularized further by stars like Vassilis Tsitsanis
Vassilis Tsitsanis

Vassilis Tsitsanis was a Greece 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 Rebetika....
. His song Synefiazméni Kyriakí became an anthem for the oppressed Greeks after it was composed in 1943, though it was not recorded until 1948. He was followed by female singers like Marika Ninou
Marika Ninou

Marika Ninou , was an Armenian-Greek rembetiko singer, born Evangelia Atamian ....
, Ioanna Yiorgakopoulou, and Sotiria Bellou
Sotiria Bellou

Sotiria Bellou was a famous Greeks singer and performer of the Greek rebetiko type of music ....
. In 1953, Manolis Chiotis
Manolis Chiotis

Manolis Chiotis was a famous Greek Rebetiko composer, singer and musician....
 added a fourth pair of strings to the bouzouki, which allowed it to be tuned tonally and set the stage for the 'electrification' of rebetiko
Rebetiko

Rebetiko, plural rebetika, , occasionally transliterated as Rembetiko, is the name for a type of Greece urban folk music. A roots music form of sorts, the sound of the genre reflects the combined influences of European music and Middle Eastern music....
.

Rebetiko
Rebetiko

Rebetiko, plural rebetika, , occasionally transliterated as Rembetiko, is the name for a type of Greece urban folk music. A roots music form of sorts, the sound of the genre reflects the combined influences of European music and Middle Eastern music....
 was revived during the 1967–1974 coup, when the Regime of the Colonels banned the genre. After the end of the Junta many revival groups (and solo artists) appeared. The most notable of them include Opisthodhromiki Kompania, Rembetiki Kompania, Agathonas Iakovidis, Ta Pedhia apo tin Patra, Dimitris Kontogiannis, Marió
Mario

is a fictional character in video games, created by Game designer#Video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Serving as Nintendo's mascot, Mario has appeared in List of Mario games by year since his creation....
, and Babis Tsertos.

Éntekhno

Drawing on rebetiko
Rebetiko

Rebetiko, plural rebetika, , occasionally transliterated as Rembetiko, is the name for a type of Greece urban folk music. A roots music form of sorts, the sound of the genre reflects the combined influences of European music and Middle Eastern music....
's westernization by Tsitsanis, éntekhno arose in the late 1950s. Éntekhno (lit. meaning "art song
Art song

An art song is a vocal music Musical composition, usually written for one singer with piano or orchestral accompaniment. By extension, the term "art song" is used to refer to the genre of such songs....
") is orchestral music with elements from Greek folk rhythm and melody; its lyrical themes are often political or based on the work of famous Greek poets. Mikis Theodorakis
Mikis Theodorakis

Mikis Theodorakis is one of the most popular Greek composers. He is known internationally for his scores in the films, Zorba the Greek , Z , and Serpico ....
 and Manos Hadjidakis
Manos Hadjidakis

Manos Hadjidakis was a popular Greek composer. He was born in Xanthi, Greece. In 1962 he received an Academy Awards in the category of Best Music for his Song Never on Sunday from the film of the same name....
 were the most popular early performers; however, there are also other significant Greek songwriters like Stavros Kouyoumtzis, Manos Loïzos
Manos Loïzos

Manos Lo?zos is considered to be one of the most important Greece music composers of the 20th century....
, and Dimos Moutsis. Significant lyricists of this genre are Manos Eleftheriou, and poet Tasos Livaditis. By the 1960s, innovative albums helped éntekhno become close to mainstream, and also led to its appropriation by the film
Film

Film encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the film industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects....
 industry for use in soundtrack
Soundtrack

The term soundtrack refers to three related concepts: recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; and the physical area of a film that contains the synchronized recorded so...
s. A form of éntekhno which is closer to Western Classical music was introduced during the late 1970s and 1980s by Thanos Mikroutsikos
Thanos Mikroutsikos

Thanos Mikroutsikos was born in Patras, Greece and is one of the leading composers of popular and european classical music in his home country....
. (See the section Other popular trends below for more information on Modern Éntekhno.)

Artists
Composers:
  • Christos Leontis
  • Dimitris Layios
  • Michalis Grigoriou
  • Notis Mavroudis
Performers:
  • Aliki Kayaloglou
  • Flery Dadonaki
  • Maria Dimitriadi
    Maria Dimitriadi

    Maria Dimitriadi , was a Greece singer. She was considered a "total voice", primarily connected with political left-wing songs of the Greek military junta of 1967?1974 and Metapolitefsi era in Greece, but she also experimented with other styles and genres, of a more lyrical tone....
  • Maria Soultatou
  • Nena Venetsanou
  • Yiannis Koutras


Laïkó


Laïkó was the mainstream popular music of the 50s and 60s. Laïkó, also known as classic laïkó or soft laïkó (e?af???a??? - elafrolaïkó), is similar to Turkish
Music of Turkey

The music of Turkey includes diverse elements ranging from Music of Central Asia and music from Ottoman Empire dominions such as Persian music, Balkan music and Byzantine music, as well as more modern European and American popular music influences....
 Fantezi music. The influence of oriental music on laïkó can be most strongly seen in 1960s indoyíftika, "india
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
n gypsy (songs)", which is filmi
Filmi

Filmi music is Indian popular music as written and performed for cinema of India. List of Indian film music directors make up the main body of composers; the songs are performed by playback singers....
 with Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 lyrics. Manolis Angelopoulos
Manolis Angelopoulos

Manolis Angelopoulos was a Greek Roma singer.His first recorded song was in 1957. He gained popularity during the 1960s singing about love but also topics like Greek refugees and exotic places....
 was the most popular indoyíftika performer, while pure laïkó was dominated by superstar Stelios Kazantzidis
Stelios Kazantzidis

Stelios Kazantzidis was a prominent Greek people singer. Between the 1950s and 1990s he was considered the voice of the Greek diaspora. His death was an emotional event for the Greeks; the obituaries gave full appreciations of his life and his importance....
 and Stratos Dionysiou
Stratos Dionysiou

Stratos Dionysiou , was a Greece La?k? and elafro-laika singer who featured predominantly in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s....
. Among the most significant songwriters and lyricists of this category are considered to be Akis Panou, George Zambetas, Apostolos Kaldáras, Giorgos Mitsakis, Babis Bakalis, Kostas Papaioannou, and Eftichia Papagianopoulos
Eftichia Papagianopoulos

Eftichia Papagianopoulos , also spelled as Eftihia Papagianopoulou, was a Greek lyricist.She was born in Aidini near Smyrna in Asia Minor in 1893....
. Many artists have combined éntekhno with laïkó with considerable success, such as the composers Mimis Plessas, Stavros Ksarchakos, and Giorgos Mouzakis, and the lyricist Lefteris Papadopoulos
Lefteris Papadopoulos

Lefteris Papadopoulos is a Greece lyricist, poet and journalist.He was born in Athens, Greece in 1935. He started studying at the Law School of the University of Athens but he stopped during the third year in order to work as a journalist....
.

Also, during the same era, another kind of "soft music" (e?af?? µ??s??? or simply elafró "soft"), represented by duos and trios of singers-musicians like the Katsamba Brothers duo, the Trio Kitara, the Trio Belcanto, and the Trio Athina, became fashionable. Its sound was an imitation of the sound of its contemporary Spanish and Mexican popular music but it also had elements from early Athenian popular songs.

Artists

Elafró (laïkó)
1950s-1960s
  • Nikos Gounaris
    Nikos Gounaris

    Nikos Gounaris Nikos Gounaris was born in 1915 in Zagora, Magnesia prefecture. He began playing the mandolin at the age of four. He attended the musical Conservatory of Music in Athens...
     (composer and performer)
  • Marianna Hatzopoulou
  • Mary Lo
  • Rena Vlahopoulou
    Rena Vlahopoulou

    Rena Vlahopoulou was a famous Greece actress and singer. She starred in theatre, musical and Greek cinema productions, including The Gambler and The Countess of Corfu....
  • Sotos Panagopoulos
  • Tonis Maroudas


Classic laïkó
1950s-1970s
  • Apostolos Nikolaidis
    Apostolos Nikolaidis (singer)

    Apostolos Nikolaidis was a Greece singer whose career spanned four decades. He was born in Drama, Greece and grew up in Thessaloniki. He is best known for being the first Greek artist to record or re-record the authentic, "prohibited" rebetika songs in the early 1970s with their original lyrics at a time when this type of music was censored...
     (both laïkó and laïká singer)
  • Babis Tsetinis
  • Christos Syrpos (better known as Christakis - ???st????)
  • Doukissa
  • Giannis Kalantzis
  • Giorgos Kinousis
  • Giorgos Margaritis
  • Grigoris Bithikotsis
    Grigoris Bithikotsis

    Grigoris Bithikotsis was a popular Greece folk singer/songwriter with a career spanning five decades.Bithikotsis was born in Peristeri, Athens, in 1922 to a poor family....
  • Jacques Iakovidis (composer only)
  • Jenny Vanou
  • Keti Grey (or Kaiti Grei)
  • Marinella
    Marinella

    Marinella is a popular Greeks singer whose career has spanned several decades.marinella ? un bravo ingenniere...andrea e tony uniti a vita......
  • Meri Linda
  • Panos Gavalas
    Panos Gavalas

    Panos Gavalas was a Greece singer....
  • Poly Panou
  • Rita Sakellariou
    Rita Sakellariou

    Rita Sakellariou was a famous Greek singer. Amongst her fans were Andreas Papanderou, Melina Merkouri, Aristotle Onasis and others. She had numerous hits, some of them are:...
  • Stelios Kokkotas
  • Tolis Voskopoulos
    Tolis Voskopoulos

    Tolis Voskopoulos is one of the legends of modern Greek music. He starred in many films and played in the Theatre in Athens. One of his greatest theatrical hits was Oi Erastes tou Oneirou opposite Zoe Laskari....
  • Yiannis Parios
  • Vangelis Perpiniadis (son of Stelios Perpiniadis
    Stelios Perpiniadis

    Stelios Perpiniadis , better known as Stellakis , was a Greek folk musician who wrote, sang, and played guitar in the rebetiko style. He was the father of another well-known Greek folk musician, Vangelis Perpiniadis....
    )
  • Vicky Moscholiou
    Vicky Moscholiou

    Vicky Moscholiou ; born in Metaxourgeio, Athens, she was a popular Greece singer.Her career began in the Easter of 1962 on the stage of Triana of Cheilas, at the side of Grigoris Bithikotsis and Doukissa....


Contemporary laïkó
1980s-2000s (also known as Éntekhno laïkó)
  • Babis Stokas
  • Dimitris Kontolazos
  • Dimitris Mitropanos
    Dimitris Mitropanos

    Dimitri Mitropanos is a Greek people singer whose renown stems from his mastery of La?k?, a Greek music style, popular during the 1950s and 60s....
  • Dimitris Zervoudakis
  • George Dalaras
    George Dalaras

    George Dalaras , also possibly spelled as Yorgos or Giorgos Dalaras, is a Greece singer. He is of international fame and has recently been selected as a Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Goodwill Ambassador....
  • Giannis Poulopoulos
    Giannis Poulopoulos

    Giannis Poulopoulos is a Greek singer-songwriter who had many prominent hits in the Greek music world during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s . He has sold the fourth-highest number of albums of all Greek singers....
  • Himerini Kolymvites (?e?µe????? ????µß?t??) (group)
  • Katerina Kouka
  • Kostas Makedonas
  • Kostas Fasoulas (Éntekhno/Contemporary laïkó lyricist)
  • Manolis Lidakis
  • Manolis Mitsias
  • Manolis Rasoulis
  • Margaríta Zorbalá
  • Marios Tokas
    Marios Tokas

    Marios Tokas composer of traditional music born in Limassol, Cyprus. In the 1974 invasion, he fought as a soldier against the Turkish invadors....
     (composer only)
  • Melina Kaná
  • Natassa Bofiliou
  • Pantelis Thalassinos
  • Petros Dourdoumbakis (composer only)
  • Petros Gaïtanos (mainly renowned as a hymn
    Hymn

    A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity/deities, a prominent figure or an epic tale....
     singer)
  • Vaggelis Korakakis (musicia, lyricist, singer)


Laïká

Laïká (not to be confused with Laïkó) is a Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 music-culture. The word "Laïká" means "(songs) of the people" in Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
. This genre is currently the most popular kind of music in Greece.

Renowned songwriters of pop laïká are Nikos Karvelas
Nikos Karvelas

Nikos Karvelas is one of the most famous living composers in Greece, as well as a singer. His talent is well known to the Greek people audience and his passion for music has created great and memorable songs in Greek people discography....
, Phoebus
Phoebus (songwriter)

Phoebus sometimes spelled Phivos or Fivos , is a well known songwriter in both Greece and Cyprus. Phoebus is mostly known for his music through Despina Vandi and Katy Garbi, although he has composed albums for many other artists in Greece and Cyprus....
, and the Pegasos duo (Antonis and Dimitris Paravomvolakis). Renowned lyricists include Giorgos Theofanous and Evi Droutsa.

Due to the considerable influence popular Greek music has from Turkey and the Middle East, there have been exchanges of music and duets with singers from these areas. Greek singers like Sarbel
Sarbel

Sarbel Michael , known professionally as simply Sarbel, is a British Greeks Pop music singer of half Greek Cypriot and half Lebanese people ancestry....
 have translated songs from Arabic to Greek and these have become extremely popular. Also, with Greek-Turkish relations warming, there are songs that are the same and sung as a duet in both languages. A good example of a song crossing these three cultures is the song Anavis Foties by Despina Vandi
Despina Vandi

Despina Vandi is a Greek people singer famous mainly in Greece and Cyprus, with international success too....
. This song has been made into Arabic by Fadel Shaker and called, Dehket Al-Donya, and a Turkish-Greek duet entitled Aska Yürek Gerek was done by Mustafa Sandal
Mustafa Sandal

Mustafa Sandal, commonly known as Musti, is a famous Turkey Singer. He is fluent in English language, Turkish language, Italian language and French language....
, a popular singer from Turkey, and Greek singer Natalia Doussopoulos
Natalia (Greek singer)

Natalia Doussopoulos, known professionally as Natalia, is a Greece Singer. She was featured in several songs with the Turkey Singer Mustafa Sandal including "Hatirla Beni" in 2000 and "Aska Y?rek Gerek" in 2003....
.

Artists
(1980s-2000s)
  • Aggeliki Iliadi
  • Aggelos Dionysiou
  • Andreas Konstantinidis
  • Angela Dimitriou
    Angela Dimitriou

    Angela Dimitriou is a Greeks pop folk singer.She is also famous in the Arab countries across the Middle East, with her song "Margarites" hitting the top of the charts in Lebanon, among other places....
  • Angie Samiou
  • Anna Vissi
    Anna Vissi

    Anna Vissi is a Greek Cypriots-Greeks singer, famous mainly in Greece and her home country Cyprus; with notable international success within the European Community, the United States and elsewhere....
     (originally from Cyprus
    Cyprus

    Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is an island country situated in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, east of Greece, west of Lebanon, Syria, and Israel, south of Turkey and north of Egypt....
    )
  • Antique
  • Antonis Remos
    Antonis Remos

    Antonis Remos is a popular Greece pop folk and Modern Laika singer.He was born in D?sseldorf, West Germany, but later he and his family moved back to their native Thessaloniki in northern Greece....
  • Apostolia Zoi
    Apostolia Zoi

    Apostolia Zoi is a popular Greeks singer who was born in Volos, Greece. To date, she has released four studio albums along with one CD single with 4Play....
  • Christina Koletsa
  • Christos Antoniadis
  • Christos Menidiatis
  • Chryspa
  • Constantinos Christoforou
    Constantinos Christoforou

    Constantinos Christoforou, Greek alphabet: ???sta?t???? ???st?f???? , has sung for Cyprus in the Eurovision Song Contest on three occasions, in 1996, 2002 and 2005....
  • Costas Charitodiplomenos
  • Despina Vandi
    Despina Vandi

    Despina Vandi is a Greek people singer famous mainly in Greece and Cyprus, with international success too....
  • Dionysis Makris
    Dionysis Makris

    Dionysis Makris born Dionysis Syntrivanis, is a popular Greece singer. He was born on February 5, 1982 in Thessaloniki, Greece and was on the Greek talent show Dreamshow....
  • Dionysis Schoinas
  • Dimitris Kokkotas
  • Efi Sarri
  • Eirini Merkouri
    Eirini Merkouri

    Irini Merkouri is a Greece pop singer....
  • Elena Paparizou
    Elena Paparizou

    Elena Paparizou is a Greeks singer, born and raised in Sweden. She is best known for winning the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 for Greece with the song "My Number One"....
  • Elli Kokkinou
    Elli Kokkinou

    Elli Kokkinou is a Greeks singer who was born in Athens, Greece. Kokkinou is among the most popular singers in Greece today. She has performed together with Greek music stars such as Anna Vissi, Glykeria, Paschalis Terzis, Sakis Rouvas, Tolis Voskopoulos, Natassa Theodoridou, Giorgos Tsalikis and Kalomoira....
  • Giannis Bekas
  • Giorgos Alkaios
    Giorgos Alkaios

    Giorgos Alkaios is a Greece pop musician, born in Athens. His career started in 1989 when he participated in a Greek television casting show....
  • Giorgos Mazonakis
    Giorgos Mazonakis

    Giorgos Mazonakis is a popular Greek Modern Laika and pop singer....
  • Giorgos Papadopoulos
  • Giannis Ploutarhos
  • Giorgos Christou
  • Giorgos Lembesis
  • Giorgos Lianos
  • Giorgos Tsalikis
  • Giorgos Yiannias
  • Ioanna Koutalidou
  • Katerina Stanisi
  • Kelly Kelekidou
    Kelly Kelekidou

    Kelly Kelekidou is a popular Greece female singer. Her debut album featured a successful arrangement of the popular song "Glyka Glyka Glykia Mou", and her other hits include "Ma to Theo", "Se Vgazo Akiro", "Sygkentrosou" and "Se Thelo Me Trela"....
  • Katy Garbi
    Katy Garbi

    Katerina 'Katy' Garbi is a Greeks singer active in Greece and Cyprus, while also gaining fame in Turkey. Her career has spanned over 20 years and is marked by several multi-platinum releases....
  • Konstantina
  • Kostantinos Pantzis
  • Kostas Karafotis
  • Kostas Martakis
    Kostas Martakis

    Kostas Martakis is a popular Greeks singer who was born in Athens, Greece. He is currently signed to Universal Music Greece after his departure from Sony BMG Greece under a three-year contract....
  • Labis Livieratos
    Labis Livieratos

    Labis Livieratos who was born in Athens, is a popular Greece singer. His talent and love for acting, was the cause and the motive that led him in the world of entertainment and into the Greek music scene....
  • Lefteris Pantazis
    Lefteris Pantazis

    Lefteris Pantazis who is often nicknamed Le-Pa by his Fan and audience, is a famous Greek musician. His songs belong to a genre that cannot precisely be described and in Greek it is called skiladiko or Laika [?a???]....
  • Litsa Diamanti
  • Litsa Giagousi
  • Maria Iakovou
  • Marianda Pieridi
  • Marina Handri
    Marina Handri

    Marina Handri is a popular Greeks singer who started her career in 2003. So far, she has released two singles and one album....
  • Maro Lytra
  • Michalis Emirlis
  • Nancy Alexiadi
  • Natasa Theodoridou
  • Natalia Doussopoulos
  • Nino
    Nino (Greek singer)

    Nino Ksipolitas is a Greeks singer, known professionally as Nino. He rose to fame in 2003 as the runner-up on the debut season of the television show Fame Story....
  • Nikos Kourkoulis
  • Nikos Makropoulos
  • Nikos Oikonomopoulos
  • Nikos Portokaloglou
  • Nikos Vertis
    Nikos Vertis

    Nikos Vertis is a popular Greeks singer who was born in Gorinchem, Netherlands. To date, he has released four studio albums along with one CD single, and 2 special edition CD/DVD albums....
  • Notis Sfakianakis
    Notis Sfakianakis

    Notis Sfakianakis is a successful Greek singer, mainly active in the "Laiko" Greek music genre. ...
  • Notis Christodoulou
  • Paschalis Terzis
    Paschalis Terzis

    Paschalis Terzis is a popular List of Greeks singer....
  • Peggy Zina
    Peggy Zina

    Kalliopi Zina , known professionally as Peggy Zina, is a Greece singer-songwriter. Peggy Zina made her debut in 1995 with her Peggy Zina . She has since released nine studio albums and is a prominent figure in the Greek music industry....
  • Periklis Stergianoudis
  • Petros Imvrios
    Petros Imvrios

    Petros Imvrios is a famous Greek singer and musician.Petros Imvrios was born in Stuttgart, Germany. In the age of 12 he began, encouraged from his mother, to learn accordion....
  • Sabrina
    Sabrina (Greek singer)

    Sabrina is a Greeks pop singer born in Zimbabwe to Greek immigrant parents. Her grandparents fled during the Greco-Turkish War and settled in Africa as many Greek people refugees did so back then....
  • Sarbel
    Sarbel

    Sarbel Michael , known professionally as simply Sarbel, is a British Greeks Pop music singer of half Greek Cypriot and half Lebanese people ancestry....
  • Sofia Strati
  • Stamatis Gonidis
  • Stefanos Antypas
  • Stella Georgiadou
  • Stratos Dionysiou
    Stratos Dionysiou

    Stratos Dionysiou , was a Greece La?k? and elafro-laika singer who featured predominantly in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s....
  • Ta Kaka Koritsia (girl band)
  • Thanos Petrelis
    Thanos Petrelis

    Thanos Petrelis is a popular Greece singer of Laiko. He has released four albums in the last four years and several singles....
  • Triantafyllos
  • Valantis
  • Vasia Riga
  • Vasilis Karras
    Vasilis Karras

    Vasilis Karras is a Greece specializing in Greek folk songs about lost love.His trademark is his prominent heavy voice and his unique singing style, which made him a very popular Greek folk singer....
  • Vasilis Terlegas
  • Zig Zag (laïká band)


Tsiftetéli

Tsiftetéli is a type of music that was brought over by refugees from Asia Minor
Anatolia

Anatolia or Asia Minor is a region of Western Asia, comprising most of the modern Republic of Turkey. It is a geographic region bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Caucasus to the northeast, the Aegean Sea to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and the Iranian plateau to the east and southeast....
 in the 1920s. Basically, it is Greek belly dance
Belly dance

Belly dance is a Western culture term for a traditional Egyptian dance form. Some American devotees refer to it simply as "Middle Eastern Dance." In the Egyptian Arabic language it is known as raqs sharqi or sometimes raqs baladi ....
 music. The Arabic and Turkish influence
Music of Turkey

The music of Turkey includes diverse elements ranging from Music of Central Asia and music from Ottoman Empire dominions such as Persian music, Balkan music and Byzantine music, as well as more modern European and American popular music influences....
 on this type of music is very clear, and adds to the cultural similarities Greeks have with the Middle East
Middle East

File:GreaterMiddleEast1.pngThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, western Asia, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East....
. This is a very popular form of Modern Greek music, and is played almost everywhere in Greece. Some notable modern Laïká artists who include tsiftetéli in their music are Katy Garbi
Katy Garbi

Katerina 'Katy' Garbi is a Greeks singer active in Greece and Cyprus, while also gaining fame in Turkey. Her career has spanned over 20 years and is marked by several multi-platinum releases....
, Anna Vissi
Anna Vissi

Anna Vissi is a Greek Cypriots-Greeks singer, famous mainly in Greece and her home country Cyprus; with notable international success within the European Community, the United States and elsewhere....
, Despina Vandi
Despina Vandi

Despina Vandi is a Greek people singer famous mainly in Greece and Cyprus, with international success too....
, Eleni Karousaki, and Giorgos Mazonakis
Giorgos Mazonakis

Giorgos Mazonakis is a popular Greek Modern Laika and pop singer....
.

Skiládiko

Skiládiko (or Skyládika) is the byname of the Greek variation of Arabesque music
Arabesque music

This article is about a genre of Turkish music. For the style of Western music called Arabesque, see Turkish music .Arabesque or Arabesk is a genre termed so by Turkey musicologists for Arabic-style music created in Turkey....
.
Artists
  • Antonis Kardamilis
  • Andreas Konstantinopoulos
  • Babis Papadopoulos
  • Giannis Floriniotis
  • Kostas Kafasis
  • Notis Volanakis
  • Sakis Tolias
  • Sotis Volanis
    Sotis Volanis

    Sotis Volanis is Greece pop folk singer, that made a significant success during the year 2002.Sotis Volanis, was born in Akrolimni, Central Macedonia to Romani parents....
  • Stamatis Gonidis
  • Tasos Bougas
    Tasos Bougas

    Tasos Bougas is a singer and performer. He started his singing career in 1970. Bougas is a Greek folk singer whose voice is described as "original La?k?",Skiladiko....
  • Zafiris Melas


Similarities

"Trash" singers
The popularity of skiládiko in Greece is considered to be associated with the recent popularity of several so-called "trash" or "decadent" (pa?a?µ?a???) singers such as Efi Thodi and Stella Bezantakou, and with the 2007 music chart success of several tabloid talk show
Tabloid talk show

Tabloid talk shows are a genre of American television talk-shows that achieved peak viewership during the late 20th century. Airing mostly during the day and distributed mostly through syndication, this genre originated with The Phil Donahue Show and was popularized by the personal confession-filled Oprah Winfrey Show.Tabloid talk sh...
 participants' albums (see Nikos Katelis
Katman

Katman is the nickname of Nikos Katelis , an allegedly mentally retarded singer. He is known in Greece, for appearing in various trash TV shows, being a performer of satirical songs in the weekly show named Je T'Aime....
 for further information).
Balkan music
Skiládiko is often considered similar to the Serbia
Serbia

Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a country in Central Europe and Balkans Europe, covering the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and the central part of the Balkans....
n Turbo-folk
Turbo-folk

Turbo-folk is a popular musical sub-genre that originated in Serbia, Balkans during early 1990s. Though it is closely associated with performers from Serbia, it continues to be very popular in the other former Yugoslavia republics, namely Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republic of Macedonia, Croatia and Slovenia....
, since they both feature the same sort of folk melodies combined with dance music, and they both share a distinctive kitch aesthetic. The same cannot be said with equal certainty for modern laïká, since a large part of this genre (at least in its original form) originates in laïkó and Balkanian Pop folk
Pop folk

Pop folk is a music genre consisting of both pop music and folk music.In Balkan music and Middle Eastern music, pop folk music refers to a mix of pop, folk, ethnic and dance music in which the dominant rhythms are oriental and those of Roma people music....
 music in general, rather than Western dance music or specifically Yugoslavian popular music.

Other popular trends

Folk singer-songwriters first appeared in the 1960s after Dionysis Savvopoulos
Dionysis Savvopoulos

Dionysis Savvopoulos is a List of Greeks, lyricist and singer.He was born in Thessaloniki. In 1963 he moved to Athens, terminating his law studies in favour of his career in music....
' 1966 breakthrough album Fortighó. Many of these musicians started out playing Néo kýma
Néo kýma

Neo Kyma was a movement in Greece music that started in the mid-1960s and lasted about a decade. It was a mixture of ?ntekhno and Chanson from France....
, "New wave" (not to be confused with New Wave rock
New Wave music

New Wave is a genre of rock music which originated from the late 1970s. It emerged from punk rock as a reaction against the popular music of the 1970s....
), a mixture of éntekhno and chanson
Chanson

A chanson is in general any Lyrics-driven French song, usually polyphonic and secular. A singer specializing in chansons is known as a "chansonnier"; a collection of chansons, especially from the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, is also known as a chansonnier....
s from France
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
. Savvopoulos mixed American musicians like Bob Dylan and Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa

Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, electric guitarist, record producer, and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock music, jazz, electronic music, orchestral, and musique concr?te works....
 with Macedonian folk music and politically incisive lyrics. In his wake came more folk-influenced performers like Arletta, Mariza Koch and Kostas Hatzis.

Nikos Xydakis
Nikos Xydakis

Nikos Xydakis is a Greece composer. piano and singer. Much of his music has its root in theater music. Xydakis has collaborated with many of the most influential Greek musicians, actors and directors, including Eleftheria Arvanitaki, Sokratis Malamas, Melina Kana, Olia Lasadriou, Thanasis Papageorgiou, Costas Tsianos, Laura Mandanas, Magia...
, one of Savvopoulos' pupils, was among the people who revolutionized laïkó by using orientalized instrumentation. His most successful album was 1987's Kondá sti Dhóxa miá Stigmí, recorded with Eleftheria Arvanitaki
Eleftheria Arvanitaki

Eleftheria Arvanitaki is a Greeks pop folk singer of Icarian descent, born October 17, 1957 in Piraeus. She started her career in singing in 1980, by joining the group "Opisthodromiki Kompania" / "?p?s??d?????? ???pa??a" and in 1981 she had her first guest appearance on a CD, by being featured in the album of Vangelis Germanos titled "Ta Bar...
.

Nowadays, a notable composer inspired by éntekhno and writing songs for contemporary éntekhno singers is Dimitris Papadimitriou.

Thanasis Polykandriotis, laïkó composer and classically trained bouzouki player, became renowned for his mixture of rebetiko and orchestral music (as in his 1996 composition "Concert for Bouzouki and Orchestra No. 1").

There are however other composers of instrumental music (filmscores and music for the stage included), whose work cannot be easily classified, such as Giannis Markopoulos
Giannis Markopoulos

Giannis Markopoulos is a Crete-Greeks composer....
, Stamatis Spanoudakis
Stamatis Spanoudakis

Stamatis Spanoudakis is a Greeks composer.Spanoudakis was born in 1948 in Athens. Early on he studied classical guitar. He went through a pop music phase, but then continued classical studies at the W?rzburg State Conservatory with Bertold Hummel and later in Athens with Konstantinos Kydoniatis....
, Giannis Spanos, Giorgos Hatzinasios, Giorgos Tsangaris, Nikos Kypourgos, Eleni Karaindrou
Eleni Karaindrou

Eleni Karaindrou is a Greeks composer, born in Teichio. She studied piano and theory at the Hellenikon Odion in Athens. She is best known for scoring the films of Theo Angelopoulos....
, and Evanthia Remboutsika.

A popular trend since the late 1980s has been the fusion of éntekhno with pop and rock music. The most renowned éntekhno pop lyricist is considered to be Lina Nikolakopoulou.

Finally, regarding purely non-oriental pop music, despite the fact that it has never reached the popularity of laïkó and laïká, or even éntekhno, it had always a considerable amount of listeners supporting it, under a wide variety of forms, throughout the history of recent (post 1960s) Greek music.

Artists
The following classifications are conventional and categories may occasionally overlap with each other:
Néo Kýma (éntekhno)
1960s-1970s
  • Arletta
  • Maria Farantouri
    Maria Farantouri

    Maria Farantouri , born in Athens on 28 November 1947 is a Greece singer. She has collaborated with prominent Greek music composers such as Mikis Theodorakis, who wrote the score for Pablo Neruda's Canto General, which Farantouri performed....
  • Kaiti Homatá
  • Kostas Hatzis
  • Lakis Pappas
  • Mariza Koch
  • Nana Mouskouri
    Nana Mouskouri

    Nana Mouskouri , born as Ioanna Mouskouri on October 13, 1934, in Chania, Crete, Greece, is a singer who is confirmed to have sold over 300 million records worldwide in a career spanning over five decades, making her one of the world's best-selling female recording artists....
  • Notis Mavroudis (composer)
  • Popi Asteriadi


Modern éntekhno
1980s-2000s (partial overlap with contemporary laïkó and éntekhno pop)
  • Afroditi Manou
  • Alkinoos Ioannidis
    Alkinoos Ioannidis

    Alkinoos Ioannidis is a Cyprus composer and singer born in Nicosia on 19 September 1969. His artistic family, with a Painting father and poet brother was a source of inspiration for him....
     (Cypriot
    Greek Cypriots

    Greek Cypriots are the ethnic Greeks population of Cyprus. They form the island's largest ethnic community, comprising nearly 80 percent of the population....
     singer)
  • Alkistis Protopsalti (also contemporary Laïkó, éntekhno pop)
  • Christos Thiveos
  • Dionysis Tsaknis
  • Eleftheria Arvanitaki
    Eleftheria Arvanitaki

    Eleftheria Arvanitaki is a Greeks pop folk singer of Icarian descent, born October 17, 1957 in Piraeus. She started her career in singing in 1980, by joining the group "Opisthodromiki Kompania" / "?p?s??d?????? ???pa??a" and in 1981 she had her first guest appearance on a CD, by being featured in the album of Vangelis Germanos titled "Ta Bar...
  • Dimitra Galani (also contemporary laïkó, éntekhno pop)
  • Eleni Vitali
  • Elli Paspalá
  • Haris Alexiou
    Haris Alexiou

    Haris Alexiou is a Greeks singer. She is one of the most popular singers in Greece and has been commercially successful since the 1970s. She has worked with important Greek songwriters, performed at top musical theatres all over the world and has received several awards....
     (also contemporary laïkó)
  • Glykeria
    Glykeria

    Glykeria...
  • Katsimihas brothers
    Katsimihas Brothers

    Haris and Panos Katsimihas , also known as Katsimihas brothers or Katsimiheoi are two renowned Greek singers/songwriters, who for the greatest part of their music career, performed as a duet....
  • Lavrentis Mahairitsas
  • Vassilis Kazoulis
  • Manolis Rasoulis
  • Manos Ksydous
  • Militiadis Paschalidis
  • Nikos Ksidakis (or Ksydakis; composer and musician only)
  • Nikos Papazoglou
  • Orfeas Peridis
  • Popi Tsanaklidou
  • Savina Yannatou
    Savina Yannatou

    Savina Yannatou is a renowned professional Greece female singer.She studied singing at the Greek national conservatory of Athens and later at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, England....
  • Sokratis Malamas
    Sokratis Malamas

    Sokratis Malamas is a Greek singer and songwriter....
  • Stamatis Kraounakis
    Stamatis Kraounakis

    Stamatis Kraounakis is one of the most important contemporary Greek people music composers. His works have characterised the decades of 1980s and 1990s in Greece....
  • Thanassis Papakonstantinou
    Thanassis Papakonstantinou

    Thanasis Papakonstantinou is a Greek singer-songwriter....
  • Vasilis Lekkas


Éntekhno pop
1980s-2000s
  • Ekeinos + Ekeinos
  • Giannis Kotsiras
  • Giorgos Perris
    Giorgos Perris

    George Perris was born in Athens in 1983 to a Greeks father and French language mother, writer Joelle Lopinot, he grew up in a both French and Greek cultural environment....
  • Efstathia
  • Eleni Dimou
  • Eleni Tsaligopoulou
  • Evridiki
    Evridiki

    'Evridiki Theokleous' , known professionally as simply 'Evridiki', is a Greek Cypriot Rock music, Pop music, and electro pop singer. She is best known in Europe for representing her home country, Cyprus, in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1992, 1994 and 2007 with the songs Teriazoume, Eimai Anthropos Ki Ego and Comme Ci, Comme ?a'...
  • Fivos Delivorias
  • Michalis Hadzigiannis
  • Myronas Stratis
  • Filippos Pliatsikas
    Filippos Pliatsikas

    Filippos Pliatsikas is the main composer, lyricist and lead singer of the ?ntekhno#Modern_.C3.A9ntekhno rock group Pyx Lax, which is considered the most successful group ever in Greece....
     (Éntekhno rock)
  • Pyx Lax (band)


Classic pop
1960s-1970s (songs from this period of Greek pop were mainly Pop ballads)
  • Dakis
  • Demis Roussos
    Demis Roussos

    Artemios Ventouris Roussos is a Greece singer.He was born in Egypt to ethnic Greek parents George and Olga , and raised in Alexandria. His parents lost everything and moved to Greece after the Suez Crisis....
  • Loukianos Kelaidonis
  • Nostradamos (Folk rock
    Folk rock

    Folk rock is a musical genre, combining elements of folk music and Rock and roll.In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and Canada around the mid-1960s....
     band)
  • The Olympians
  • Poll (Psychedelic rock
    Psychedelic rock

    CharacteristicsThe musical style typically features electric guitars, 12 strings being preferred for their 'jangle'; elaborate studio effects - backwards taping, panning , phasing, long delay loops and extreme reverb; exotic instrumentation, with a particular fondness for the sitar and tabla; A strong keyboard presence, especially Hammond, Far...
    )
  • Vicky Leandros
    Vicky Leandros

    Vicky Leandros is a Greeks singer with a long international career.She is the daughter of singer, musician and composer Leandros Papathanasiou ....
  • Vlassis Bonatsos
    Vlassis Bonatsos

    Vlassis Bonatsos was a popular Greek entertainer. He started his career from music, creating a group called "Peloma Becue", in the early 1970s....
     (as the singer of the Pelóma Bokioú band)


Contemporary pop
1980-2000s
  • Alexia (Cypriot singer)
  • Annet Artani (Blue-eyed soul
    Blue-eyed soul

    Blue-eyed soul is rhythm and blues or soul music performed by White people artists. The term was first used in the mid-1960s to describe white artists who performed soul and R&B that was similar to the raw, expressive music of the Motown and Stax Records record labels....
    )
  • Bessy Argyraki (Pop ballad)
  • Christina Anagnostopoulou (Dance-pop
    Dance-pop

    Dance-pop is a style of electronic dance music and a subgenre of pop music that evolved from disco, circa 1981, that combines dance beats with a pop music/contemporary R&B song structure....
    )
  • Christos Dantis
    Christos Dantis

    Christos Dantis , is a popular Greece singer, songwriter, and musician....
  • Giorgos Perris
    Giorgos Perris

    George Perris was born in Athens in 1983 to a Greeks father and French language mother, writer Joelle Lopinot, he grew up in a both French and Greek cultural environment....
  • Despina Olympiou
  • Eleni Peta (Pop Contemporary)
  • Iro (Pop Contemporary)
  • Lia Vissi
    Lia Vissi

    Lia Vissi is a Greek Cypriot singer, most notable for her three participations in the Eurovision Song Contest and being older sister of the very famous singer Anna Vissi....
     (Cypriot singer)
  • Kostas Bigalis (Pop rock, Pop laïká)
  • Mando
    Mando (singer)

    Mando or Manto , born Adamantia Stamatopoulou , is a popular Greece singer. She was born in Piraeus on April 13 and raised in Athens by her jazz pianist father, Nikos Stamatopoulos and a classic soprano opera mother Mary Apergi....
     (Pop rock, Pop ballads)
  • Marina Solonos
  • Michalis Rakintzis
    Michalis Rakintzis

    Michalis Rakintzis is an established male singer in Greece. He was born in Athens and studied Mechanical Engineering in Great Britain. In the eighties he sang in the number one Greek rock group at the time, a group called Scraptown....
     (Disco music)
  • Natalia
    Natalia (Greek singer)

    Natalia Doussopoulos, known professionally as Natalia, is a Greece Singer. She was featured in several songs with the Turkey Singer Mustafa Sandal including "Hatirla Beni" in 2000 and "Aska Y?rek Gerek" in 2003....
  • Polina
    Polina Misailidou

    Polina Paraskevi Misailidou is a Greece singer, who is better known in her own country simply as Polina.Polina was born and raised in Nea Smyrni, a suburb south of Athens....
     (Disco)
  • Sakis Rouvas
    Sakis Rouvas

    Anastasios "Sakis" Rouvas , known professionally as Sakis Rouvas or simply Sakis, is a popular Greek rock music, pop rock, and dance-pop singer, guitarist and occasional actor, composer, television presenter and former pole vaulter....
     (Pop rock
    Pop rock

    Pop rock is a mix of pop music and rock music that uses catchy pop style, with light lyrics over top of guitar-based songs. There are varying definitions of the term, ranging from it being classed as an "upbeat variety of rock music" to a subgenre of pop music....
    , dance-pop
    Dance-pop

    Dance-pop is a style of electronic dance music and a subgenre of pop music that evolved from disco, circa 1981, that combines dance beats with a pop music/contemporary R&B song structure....
    , funk
    Funk

    Funk is an United States Music genre that originated in the mid- to late-1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, soul jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music....
    , soul
    Soul

    In many religions and parts of philosophy, the soul is the immaterial part of a person. It is usually thought to consist of one's thoughts and Personality psychology, and can be synonymous with the spirit, mind or self....
    )
  • Sophia Vossou
    Sophia Vossou

    Sophia Vossou is a famous greek singer who is probably best known for representing Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest, in 1991....
     (Pop ballad)
  • Stephanos Korkolis (Éntekhno/pop composer (late80s-00s); piano-oriented pop singer (early90s))
  • Thanos Kalliris
    Thanos Kalliris

    Thanos Kalliris is a Greeks singer who was born in Athens. His father is a famous Greek composer, Titos Kalliris. In the 1980s, he was a part of the pop music band Bang alongside Vassilis Dertilis....
     (occasionally Latin pop
    Latin pop

    Latin Pop generally refers to pop music that has what may be perceived a "Latin" influence. The definition of "Latin" varies, however. Linguistically, pop music sung in Spanish, or other Romance languages, may be considered Latin pop....
    )
  • Vanessa Adamopoulou (Dance-pop)
  • Victoria Halkiti (Dance-pop)


Teen pop
Teen pop

Teen pop is a subgenre of pop music that is marketed and oriented toward teenagers. Teen pop covers genres and styles such as pop music, dance music, and Rock music....
2000s
  • 4play (boy band
    Boy band

    A boy band, written in some countries boys band or boy's band, is a type of pop music band featuring several young male singers. The members are generally expected to perform as dancers as well, often executing highly choreographed sequences to their own music....
    )
  • Artemis Gounaki
    Artemis Gounaki

    Artemis Gounaki * April 7, 1967 in Munich is a Greek and German singer, vocal coach, songwriter, composer and arranger. She got even more publicity because of her appearance in several Popstars, where she worked as a vocal coach and/or a judge....
     (record producer
    Record producer

    In the music industry, a record producer has many roles, among them controlling the recording sessions, coaching and guiding the musicians, organizing and scheduling production budget and resources, and supervising the recording, Audio mixing and audio mastering processes....
    , musical arranger)
  • Dimitris Korgialas
  • Hi-5
    Hi-5 (Greek band)

    Hi-5 was a Greece girl pop music Band consisting of five females created by the Greece version of the popular show Popstars in 2003. The band shot to fame immediately and had huge fans in Greece and Cyprus....
  • Kalomira
  • Katerina Moutsatsou
    Katerina Moutsatsou

    Katerina Moutsatsou , also spelled "Moutsatsos", is a Greeks American actress.She studied in Paris and graduated from Paris III - Sorbonne University....
  • One (band)
    One (band)

    ONE is a disbanded boy band that first appeared in 1999 and which is recognized as both Greece and Cyprus's very first boy band. The band was formed by leading Cypriot-Greece composer Giorgos Theofanous who got them signed with Minos EMI and wrote all their music and lyrics, and consisted of Constantinos Christoforou, Demetres Koutsavlakis, P...
     (Cypriot Boy band)
  • Tamta


Pop rock
Pop rock

Pop rock is a mix of pop music and rock music that uses catchy pop style, with light lyrics over top of guitar-based songs. There are varying definitions of the term, ranging from it being classed as an "upbeat variety of rock music" to a subgenre of pop music....
1990s-2000s
  • 2002GR
  • Ble
    BLE

    BLE is a three letter acronym that could mean:* Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad* Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, a railway labor union in the United States...
  • C:Real
    C:Real

    C:Real is a popular Greek Rock music/Pop music band that has had a number of hits in Greece. They are characterized by their pop rock sound and live performances....
  • COTIK
    COTIK

    CotiK, a.k.a. Coti K and Coti, is a Greek/Italian sound artist, musician, record producer and sound engineer.Born Costantino Luca Rolando Kiriakos in Milan, Italy in 1966, he moved to Greece at the age of six, where, since the mid-eighties, has been involved in various Athens pioneering electronic bands ....
     (record producer
    Record producer

    In the music industry, a record producer has many roles, among them controlling the recording sessions, coaching and guiding the musicians, organizing and scheduling production budget and resources, and supervising the recording, Audio mixing and audio mastering processes....
    )
  • De Facto
  • Domenica
    Domenica

    File:Domenica1.jpgDomenica is a popular Greek rock band that was formed in Athens, in 1994....
  • Dytikés Synoikíes
  • Giorgos Sambanis
  • Kitrina Podilata
    Kitrina podilata

    Kitrina Podilata is a Greek band formed in 2000 consisting of George and Alexandros Pantelias. They were the inspirers of their first music group which was formed in 1996....
  • Kostas Tournas (Classic rock
    Classic rock

    Classic rock was originally conceived as a radio station radio format which evolved from the album oriented rock format in the early-1980s. In the United States, this rock music format now features a large playlist of songs ranging from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, with some stations including a limited number of current releases....
    )
  • Kore. Ydro.
    Kore. Ydro.

    Kore. Ydro. is a rock/pop group from the Greek island of Corfu....
     (Indie rock
    Indie rock

    Indie rock is alternative rock that most notably exists in the Independent music underground music scene. It primarily refers to rock musicians that are or were unsigned, or have signed to independent record labels, rather than major record labels....
     band)
  • Locomondo
    Locomondo

    Locomondo is a seven member band based in Athens, Greece. Their name loosely means "Crazy World" in Spanish language. Their music can be tagged as reggae or ska....
     (Reggae
    Reggae

    Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s.While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Music of Jamaica, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady....
     and Ska
    Ska

    Ska is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and Calypso music with United States jazz and rhythm and blues....
     band)
  • Lakis Papadopoulos (Classic rock)
  • Manolis Famellos (Indie rock)
  • Matisse (Glam rock revival
    Glam rock

    Glam rock , is a sub-genre of rock music that developed in the UK in the post-hippie early 1970s which was "performed by singers and musicians wearing outrageous clothes, makeup, hairstyles, and platform-soled boots." The flamboyant lyrics, costumes, and visual styles of glam performers were a camp , theatrical blend of nostalgia references t...
    , Indie pop
    Indie pop

    Indie pop is a genre of alternative rock music that originated in the United Kingdom in the mid 1980s, with its roots in the Scottish post-punk bands on the Postcard Records label in the early '80s such as Orange Juice and Josef K and the dominant UK independent band of the mid eighties, The Smiths....
    )
  • Michalis Hatzigiannis
    Michalis Hatzigiannis

    Mihalis Hatzigiannis is presently one of the most popular Greek singer-songwriters in the Greek music industry....
  • Nikos Mihas
    Nikos Mihas

    Nikos Mihas is a Greek singer-songwriter representing the new age of Greek rock stars by performing songs with power and electronic sounds. He writes most of his songs on his own....
     (Pop punk
    Pop punk

    Pop punk is a fusion genre that combines elements of punk rock with pop music, to varying degrees. It is typically referred to as a strand of alternative rock that combines power-pop melodies and chord changes with speedy punk tempos and loud guitars....
    )
  • Raining Pleasure
    Raining Pleasure

    Raining Pleasure is an indie rock / rock music band originating from Patras, Greece often credited with spearheading the newest wave of greek bands with english lyrics ....
     (anglophone
    Anglophone

    An Anglophone is someone who speaks the English language. As an adjective, it refers to belonging to an English-speaking population especially in a country where two or more languages are spoken....
     Indie rock band)
  • ONAR
    ONAR

    ONAR , composed of Lefteris Pliatsikas and Penny Ramadani, is a renowned Greek Pop rock group. The band's name seems to be a reference to the Ancient Greek word ??a? "dream"....
  • Onirama
    Onirama

    ONIRAMA is a Greek pop rock band that has had a number of hits in Greece. They are known for their wide range of music, and party-like concerts....
  • Stelios Rokkos
  • Sakis Rouvas
    Sakis Rouvas

    Anastasios "Sakis" Rouvas , known professionally as Sakis Rouvas or simply Sakis, is a popular Greek rock music, pop rock, and dance-pop singer, guitarist and occasional actor, composer, television presenter and former pole vaulter....
  • Stigma 90
  • Ypogeia Revmata (Éntekhno rock band)
  • Zak Stefanou


Pop rap
1990s-2000s crews
  • Goin' Through
  • Imiskoúmbria
    Imiskoumbria

    Imiskoumbria , also known as Imiz is a hip-hop group from Athens, Greece. The group's roster has been the same since its inception in 1994, constisting of rapper Dimitris Mentzelos , Mithridatis and DJ Pritanis ....
  • NEVMA
  • Stavento
  • Stereo Mike
    Stereo Mike

    Mihalis Exarhos , known professionally by his stage name Stereo Mike, is an MTV Europe Music Awards winning Greeks Hip-Hop/Rap artist for Best Greek Act....
     (solo artist)


Independent music scenes

Since the late 70s various independent scenes of "marginal" musical genres have appeared in Greece (mainly in Athens, Piraeus, and Thessaloniki). Most of them were short-lived and never gained mainstream popularity but the most prominent artists/bands of these scenes are critically acclaimed today and are considered among the pioneers of independent Greek music (each one in their own genre).

Genres
  • Greek Jazz (70s: Sphinx (band), Sakis Papadimitriou, Floros Floridis)
  • Blues-rock
    Blues-rock

    Blues-rock is a hybrid musical genre combining bluesy Improvisation#Musical_improvisations over the 12-bar blues and extended boogie jam session with rock and roll styles....
     / Art rock
    Art rock

    Art rock is a term describing a subgenre of rock music that tends to have "experimental music or avant garde music influences" and emphasizes "novel sonic texture."...
     (70s-80s: Socrates Drank the Conium
    Socrates Drank the Conium

    Socrates Drank the Conium is a Greek rock band that formed in 1969 and was active in the early 1970s. Their sound was reminiscent of other such bands of the approximate period like the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Led Zeppelin, Cream , Jeff Beck and some of the more progressive, experimental works of Black Sabbath....
     (band), Pavlos Sidiropoulos
    Pavlos Sidiropoulos

    Pavlos Sidiropoulos was a Rock musician, noted for supporting the use of Greek rock in rock music, at a time when most Greek Rock music Musical ensemble were using English lyrics....
    , Spyridoula
    Pavlos Sidiropoulos

    Pavlos Sidiropoulos was a Rock musician, noted for supporting the use of Greek rock in rock music, at a time when most Greek Rock music Musical ensemble were using English lyrics....
     (band), Nikolas Asimos
    Nikolas Asimos

    Nikolas Asimos was a Greece composer and singer. His real last name was Asimopoulos . Asimos was a very special case of a counter-culture artist, mostly because of his choice of lifestyle....
    , Vasilis Papakonstantinou
    Vasilis Papakonstantinou

    Vasilis Papakonstantinou is a famous singer and one of the most important representatives of Greek rock. Most of his songs have gained considerable popularity, mainly in Greece and Cyprus....
    , Zorz Pilali (blues
    Blues

    Blues is a music genre based on the use of the blues chord progressions and the blue notes. Though several blues musical form s exist, the 12-bar blues chord progressions are the most frequently encountered....
     guitarist), Dimitris Poulikakos
    Dimitris Poulikakos

    Dimitris Poulikakos is a Greece actor and rock singer....
    )
  • New Wave
    New Wave music

    New Wave is a genre of rock music which originated from the late 1970s. It emerged from punk rock as a reaction against the popular music of the 1970s....
     (80s bands: Metro Decay, Film Noir, Villa 21, Anti Troppau Council)
  • Greek punk
    Greek punk

    The Greek punk scene was small but powerful in the Greek capital, Athens, in the 1980s. Bands like Adiexodo , Genia Tou Chaous , Stress , Panx Romana, Ex-humans, Anti functioned as a bunch of related bands, who gave concerts together, in the same locations....
     (80s-90s bands: Adiexodo
    Adiexodo

    Adiexodo was a Greek Punk band from Athens formed in 1983 by Dimitris Spyropoulos, Sotiris Theocharis, Stathis Papandreou, and Mimis Alimprantis....
    , Genia Tou Chaous
    Genia Tou Chaous

    Genia Tou Chaous is probably the most influence Greek punk band of the 1980s. The lyrics and the music were of punk origin, with Gothic rock, pessimistic attitude and clear heavy-metal elements....
    , Deus ex Machina
    Deus Ex Machina (punk band)

    Deus Ex Machina is a popular greek hardcore punk band from Athens formed in 1989 by Dimitris Spyropoulos and Dimitris Manthos, with Spyropoulos and Yiannis Venardis having already been early Greek Punk scene's 'veterans' ....
    , Panx Romana
    Panx Romana

    Panx Romana is a Greece punk rock band that was established in 1977. They are very popular among Greek anarchists and have done multiple concerts in many locations of Athens....
    )
  • Greek rock
    Greek rock

    Rock and roll spread around the world in the 1950s and 60s, entering Greece in the middle of the latter decade. Greek performers in the field include Jimi Quidd , the Bob Dylan of Greece, Dionysis Savvopoulos, who also plays rembetika and laika, and Pavlos Sidiropoulos, the most important representative of Greek folk-rock and rock....
     (80s-90s bands: Trypes
    Trypes

    Trypes , which translates in English as "Holes" are an acclaimed greek rock band. Members come from Thessaloniki....
    , Diafana Krina
    Diafana Krina

    Diafana Krina is a Greek rock group. It is consisted of Thanos Anestopoulos , Pantelis Rothostoglou , Nikos Bardis , Kyriakos Tsoukalas and Tassos Machas ....
    , Endelekheia
    Endelekheia

    Endelekhia is a rock band consisting of Dimitris Mitsotakis , Dimitris Leontopoulos , Antonis Dimitriou , Andreas Vaitoudis and Yorgos Koulouris ....
    , Ksýlina Spathiá - ?????a Spa???, Morá Sti Fotiá)
  • Indie rock
    Indie rock

    Indie rock is alternative rock that most notably exists in the Independent music underground music scene. It primarily refers to rock musicians that are or were unsigned, or have signed to independent record labels, rather than major record labels....
     (anglophone 90s and 00s bands: The Last Drive
    The Last Drive

    The Last Drive is a Greek garage revival rock group which formed in 1983 and broke up in 1995. In January 2007, the band announced on their website that they got together again for some gigs....
    , The Earthbound
    The Earthbound

    File:The Earthbound.jpgThe Earthbound is a Greece band.It was formed in Athens in 1998 by six members and former members of The Last Drive, Honeydive, Rockin' Bones and Engine-V....
    , I Knew Them
    I Knew Them

    I Knew Them is a band that originates from Thessaloniki, Greece. However, it is a band that differentiates itself from the Greek rock movement, introducing elements from foreign Rock music styles such as the Grunge movement from Seattle, USA during the late 1980s and New York's No-Wave from the early 1980s....
    , Film, Closer, Abbie Gale, Infidelity
    Infidelity (band)

    Infidelity were formed some time in 1996 in northern Greece . Their early years can be described by some very promising live performances in their hometown and near-by cities, and the composing of their first songs....
    , Waterpipes
    Waterpipes (band)

    Waterpipes is a Greek based acoustic rock-folk band. Waterpipes consists of two members: Dennis Paraschis and Marcel Ringa . They are signed to Impact records, and put out their first major label album selftitled on January 15th 2008....
    , Monika Christodoulou)
  • Low Bap
    Low Bap

    Low Bap is a sub-genre of the Greece hip hop music scene, that emerged in the mid-1990s as the sound of the prominent Greek hip hop group Active Member....
     (Active Member
    Active Member

    Active Member is a Greece hip-hop/low bap group, founded in 1992 by Michalis Mitakidis ,Nikitas Klint and Dimitris Kritikos ....
    , Sadahzinia
    Sadahzinia

    Sadahzinia is a Greek rapper, regarded by many as the first woman that entered the hip-hop scene in Greece. Her name is a made up play on the words: "sad" + "jah"+ the flower "zinia"....
    , Babylona - ?aß????a) / Greek hip hop
    Greek hip hop

    Greek hip hop is the master genre of rap music in Greece. The earliest indications of the localized genre date back to 1987, though native language albums did not appear until the mid-1990s....
     (FF.C
    FF.C

    FF.C is a Greek people Hip-Hop music band founded in 1987....
    , Terror ex Crew, DJ ALX
    DJ ALX

    ALX , pronounced Alex, is one of Greece's most influential hip hop producers. He was perhaps the first producer in Greece to compose using a Sampler ....
    , Sifu VERSUS
    Sifu VERSUS

    Born Nikolaos Domvros in Thessaloniki, Greece , Sifu VERSUS is one of the better known names in Greek hip hop, both in and out of the country....
    , Eisvoleas - ??sß???a?, ZN MCs - ??ta ?? MCs, Vita Pis - ??ta ?e??, Razastarr, Voreia Asteria - ???e?a ?st???a, Alytoi Grifoi - ???t?? G??f??)
  • Nitzhonot
    Nitzhonot

    Nitzhonot is a crossover between Goa trance and uplifting trance, emerged during the mid-late 1990s in Israel....
     / Uplifting Trance
    Uplifting trance

    Uplifting trance is a term to describe several styles of music; all of which are subgenres of trance music. The name, which emerged in the wake of Progressive electronic music in 1997, is derived from the feeling which listeners claim to get ....
     (90s: Cyan, Cherouvim, Darma, Star Children)
  • Acid house
    Acid house

    Acid house is a sub-genre of house music that emphasizes a repetitive, hypnotic and trance music-like style, often with samples or spoken lines rather than sung lyrics....
     / Techno / Electronica
    Electronica

    Electronica includes a wide range of contemporary electronic music designed for a wide range of uses, including foreground listening, some forms of dancing, and background music for other activities; however, unlike electronic dance music, it is not specifically made for dancing....
     (90s-00s: Stereo Nova
    Stereo Nova

    Stereo Nova was a Greece band formed in the early 1990s by Kbhta, Mikael Delta. Their first name was Bobby Blast. Their music was based on electronic forms and acid , house and techno music....
    , Mikro
    Mikro

    Mikro is a Greek band based in Thessaloniki, Greece. It was formed in 1998 and was named after the greek word micro used in metric measuring systems....
    )
  • Heavy metal
    Heavy metal music

    Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in England and the United States. With roots in blues-rock and psychedelic rock, the bands that created heavy metal developed a thick, massive sound, characterized by highly amplified Distortion , extended guitar solos, emphatic beats, and overall...
     (Firewind
    Firewind

    Firewind is a Greece power metal band that was originally created as a way for guitarist Gus G. to market his demo album Nocturnal Symphony in 1998....
    ) / Extreme metal
    Extreme metal

    Extreme metal is an umbrella term, somewhat loosely defined, for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the 1980s....
     (Rotting Christ
    Rotting Christ

    Rotting Christ is a Greeks melodic black metal band formed in 1987. They are noted for being one of the first bands of the genre within this region, as well as a premier act within the European underground metal scene....
    , Nightfall
    Nightfall (band)

    Nightfall was a melodic death metal/gothic metal band from Greece, formed by vocalist/bassist Efthimis Karadimas in 1991. In 2005, Drummer George Kollias left to join American death metal band Nile and guitarist would be recruited to fill in as guitarist for Rotting Christ....
    ) / Folk black metal
    Folk metal

    Folk metal is a sub-genre of heavy metal music that developed in Europe during the 1990s. As the name suggests, the genre is a fusion of heavy metal with folk music....
     (Kawir, Fiendish Nymphe -- sister project of the more renowned Ancient Greek music revival band Daemonia Nymphe - ?a?µ???a ??µf?)
  • Parody music
    Parody music

    Parody music, or musical parody, involves changing or recycling existing musical ideas or lyrics - or copying the peculiar style of a composer or artist, or even a general style of music....
     (80s-00s: Tzimis Panousis
    Tzimis Panousis

    Tzimis Panousis is a Greece musician and stand-up comedian born in Athens on February 12, 1954, where he has spent most of his life. His fans often refer to him as ?Tzimakos?....
    , Aéra Patéra (band), Amóla Kaloúband)
  • Underground / Cult
    Underground music

    Underground music refers to a variety of music subgenres that usually develop a subculture cult following despite their lack of mainstream appeal, visibility, or commercial promotion....
     / Outsider music
    Outsider music

    Outsider music are songs and compositions by musicians who are not part of the music business who write songs that ignore standard musical or lyrical conventions, either because they have no formal training or because they disagree with formal rules....
     (00s bands: Lost Bodies, Plokámi tou Karx
    Voiceless velar fricative

    The voiceless velar fricative, informally known as the hard ch, is a type of consonantal sound used in some Speech communication languages....
    aría, N-Carkade)

See also

  • Music of Cyprus
    Music of Cyprus

    The music of Cyprus includes a variety of classical, folk and popular genres. Recent trends have seen the rise of Ayia Napa, a resort, as a home for club music, similar in its evolution to that of the island Ibiza....
  • Heptanese School
    Ionian School (music)

    The term Ionian School of Music denotes the musical production of a group Heptanesian composers, whose heyday was from the early 19th century till approximately the 1950s....
    , the first major school (style) of Greek classical music
  • Manolis Kalomiris
    Manolis Kalomiris

    Manolis Kalomiris, ?a????? ?a???????? , was a Greece composer. Born in Smyrna, he attended school in Istanbul and studied piano and composition in Vienna....
    , founder of the style of classical music called Greek National School of Music
  • Nikolaos Skalkottas
    Nikolaos Skalkottas

    Nikos Skalkottas was one of the most important Greece composers of 20th-century music. A member of the Second Viennese School, he drew his influences from both the european classical music and the music of Greece....
  • Iannis Xenakis
    Iannis Xenakis

    Iannis Xenakis was a Greeks modernist composer, musical theoretician, and architect. He is regarded as an important and influential composer of the twentieth century....
  • Giannis Christou
  • List of Greek composers
    List of Greek composers

    List of composers from Greece:* Costas Andreou* Dionysis Boukouvalas* Pavlos Carrer* Nikos Christodoulou* Giannis Christou , 20th century classical and "meta-serialist" composer...
  • List of Greek folk musicians
    List of folk musicians

    Albania*Altin Shira*Altin Sulku*Dava Gjergji*Ded? Gjon Luli*Dervish Shaqa*Eli Fara*Fatime Sokoli*Fatmira Brecani*Fatrim Dule*Flora Gashi...
  • List of Greek musical artists
    List of Greek musical artists

    This is a list of Greek singers and groups. Not many of them are known out of Greece, which means that they do not all have an article about them. This list mainly contains artists of pop and rock, and not many of traditional greek music and laiko....
  • List of notable bouzouki players
    Bouzouki

    The bouzouki is the mainstay of modern Greek music. It is a stringed instrument with a pear-shaped body and a very long neck. The bouzouki is a member of the 'long neck lute' family and is similar to a mandolin....
  • List of Greek guitarists
  • List of Greek lyricists
  • List of Greek songwriters
  • List of Greek singers by genre


External links

  • : Short History of Greek Music
  • : The Music of Greece
  • : A collection of some 11,000 Greek songs, with lyrics and chords
  • : A site about Greek Rebetiko, Laïkó, and traditional music
  • A forum about Greek Rebetiko, Laïkó and Traditional music