Greek Music

Greek Music

Greek taverna with bouzouki music

Greek music is of impressive diversity, mostly due to the assimilation of different cultures and needs throughout the mainland and islands. Greeks adore music and it a very important part of their everyday life, even since the antiquity.

The most known types of Greek music are:

The Greek folk songs, which originate from the traditional poetry and music; it is a type of songs that refers to older musical movements and is vastly loved and played, especially in celebrations and festivals.

Nissiotika is also a popular type of songs, born in the islands and they are played with Violin, lira, clarinet and guitar. Diversity here is also huge: Crete features its own style, with mantinades, small poems sung in a tone given by the Cretan lyra.

Rembetika is probably the most interesting style of music, born in hashish dens and underground areas in Thessaloniki and Piraeus. Rembetika was created by the refugees that came to Greece after the destruction in Minor Asia, when Greeks were deported by the Turks. Greeks who have never been in Greece, homesick and feeling rejected in their own country created this type of music, singing about poverty, pain, hunger, oppression, betrayals, drugs. Rembetika songs were forbidden for many years in Greece.

Modern Greek music is a mixture of folk, rembetika, laika (Greek popular music) based on bouzouki; it’s a passionate and fiery kind of music, played everywhere, from local taverns to nightclubs, where live music prevails in Greece.