Music of Greece

With the phrase Greek Music we usually mean music and songs that were created by Greeks .

Greek Music changes during different historical times.

Today we are focusing in the latest genres.The Heptanesean kantádhes are based on the popular Italian music of the early 19th century and became the forerunners of the Greek modern song, influencing its development to a considerable degree.
Theophrastos Sakellaridis, Kostas Giannidis, Nikos Gounaris (right), Sofia Vembo were some notable composers/singers in the early- mid 20th century.
Sofia Vembo was a leading singer and actress active from the interwar period to the early postwar years and the 1950s. She became best known for her performance of patriotic songs during the Greek-Italian War.
Rebetiko was initially associated with the lower and poor classes

Rebetiko
probably originated in the music of the larger Greek cities, most of them coastal, in today’s Greece and Asia Minor.
In 1923, after the population exchange between Greece and Turkey, many ethnic Greeks from Asia Minor fled to Greece as a result of the Greco-Turkish War. They settled in poor neighborhoods in Piraeus, Thessaloniki, and Athens. Many of these immigrants were highly educated, such as songwriter Vangelis Papazoglou, and Panagiotis Toundas.
With rebetiko
reaching greater general acceptance the scene was soon popularized further by stars like Vassilis Tsitsanis and Markos Vamvakaris.

Drawing on rebetiko’s westernization by Tsitsanis and Chiotis, Éntekhno arose in the late 1950s. Éntekhno is orchestral music with elements from Greek folk rhythm and melody.

Laïkó was the mainstream popular music of Greece during the 60s and 70s.Laïkó was dominated by singers such as Grigoris Bithikotsis, Marinella, Stelios Kazantzidis, Panos Gavalas .
Modern laïká is currently Greece’s mainstream music genre in today nightlife.

An indispensable part of the contemporary laïká culture is the písta “dance floor/venue”. From the beginnings of the new decade, many artists have emerged by releasing Laïko-Pop with Dance recordings.

Artist such as  Katerina Stikoudi, Stan, Demy.

Tasios Alexandros