Rebetiko1 as a Testing Device for Genre Theories and Musical Categorizing Processes

Amongst all Mediterranean music cultures, rebetiko offers one of the best examples of ‘translation’,,, whatever meaning is attached to the term. It is a migrant music culture, supposedly born on Anatolian ground (where the earliest usages of the name can be traced) and developed in Greece after the 1922–1923 katastrofí. It was initially the expression of a marginalized subculture, unavoidably linked to the mainstream way of life of Ottoman communities in Constantinople, Smyrna and other coastal towns in Turkey. It became a vastly popular genre in Greece, where even today the majority of the population knows dozens of songs. It used to be considered the musical icon of the failure of Greek nationalists’ Great Idea, until one of the songs in the genre became an unofficial national anthem As a genre, it evolved from melismatic to syllabic singing, from ‘modal’ to ‘tonal’, from additive to straight meters, from the usage of Ottoman, Arab and Central Asian instruments, in various mixtures, to almost fixed ensembles based on bouzoukis and Western instruments, from celebrating the underworld to night life in clubs. Yet, it has been considered as one genre, beloved by many, hated and persecuted by a few, disregarding (in both cases) subtler distinctions.

In this paper, rebetiko will be used as a testing device for genre theories and musical categorizing processes. It will be argued that, rather than pigeonholing fixed identities, genres adapt to change, and translation is a key concept to describe such adaptation, and even genre formation.