Credit DANIEL KOGLIN
At its outset, Greek rebetiko song had been a disreputable genre inasmuch as many intellectual opinion-leaders associated it with urban lowlifes and Turkish music. Today, however, members of the educated classes—in Greece as well as in Turkey—hold this genre in high esteem as one of the great achievements of modern Greek and late Ottoman popular culture, respectively. The author explores the ways rebetiko is perceived and performed in Istanbul and Athens in an era of Greek-marginality. This marginality, however, is redefined in relation to the present thus accounting, it is argued, for the emotional impact rebetiko continues to have on listeners in both countries.
