Made in Greece

Studies in Popular Music

Dafni Tragaki

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781138811980
• eBook ISBN: 9781317607991
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

Made in Greece: Studies in Popular Music serves as a comprehensive and thorough introduction to the history, sociology, and musicology of contemporary Greek popular music. Each essay covers the major figures, styles, and social contexts of pop music in Greece, first presenting a general description of the history and background of popular music in Greece, followed by essays, written by leading scholars of Greek music, that are organized into thematic sections: Hugely Popular, Art-song Trajectories, Greekness beyond Greekness, Counter Stories, and Present Musical Pasts.

Part I
Hugely Popular

Preamble

The topics introduced in Part I represent music phenomena occurring in diverse spheres of public culture while constituting enduring Greek musical/cultural intimacies. Stelios Kazantzidis, the saturating voice of post-civil war social trauma and precariousness mediated in laiko song, the aesthetic excessiveness of the pista cult, or Anna Vissi’s pop phantasmagoria were occasionally – and, to a certain extent, still are – criticized as “bad music” made in Greece. In the shadows of the modernist “mass culture” theory certain intellectuals and cultural elites, among others, viewed with suspicion the massiveness of such phenomena, while their most fervent critics denounced them as manifestations of social contamination, or as dangerous products of the culture industry disorienting the people from “fine music”. Up until the time of writing, research on such likewise popular music phenomena has been poorly represented in the Greek academic music department’s curricula, despite its recent embracement in departments of social anthropology, history, and social sciences. Such politics of knowledge are emblematic of the persisting epistemological aversion of the “low” also defining musical cosmologies of taste, which are, however, increasingly undermined and questioned by more recent theoretical trends, as well as, by several of the essays brought together in this volume.

In Chapter 1, Economou traces the emergence of laiko song in the devastated post-civil war Greek society, the atmosphere of hatred and fear occupying the public sphere, the rapid urbanization, the rise of the Greek middle-class and the modern lifestyle, the highbrow distinction between the “urban” and the “rural”, the disaffection with the suppressive regime, and the fragility of democracy leading to the coup d’état (1967–1974). The chapter briefly contextualizes the formation of the laiko genre in the institutional framework of the Greek culture industry and the discursive constructions of the rebetiko and laiko genres. Economou suggests a taxonomy of the laiko generic genre aiming at highlighting the diverse laiko scenes and subgenres: the style developed by Vasilis Tsitsanis, the legendary rebetiko reformer, who also founded the laiko song during the 1940s; the gentrification of rebetiko and the invention of new bouzouki playing styles in Manolis Hiotis’ archontorebetiko (posh-rebetiko) that was embraced by bourgeois people; the heavy, “grieving” laiko of Stelios Kazantzidis, one of the most adored singers from the mid-1950s onward, especially among the deprived urban working class and the Greek diaspora across the world, as well as, an emblematic figure of “the aesthetics of pain” vocalizing a subaltern affective resistance against modernization; the optimistic, middle-class-oriented laiko genre represented by Panos Gavalas; the invention of hybrid genres, that of the entechno-laiko (art-popular) by scholarly composers during the 1960s, and the commercialized elafry-laiko (light-popular) song that prevailed during the dictatorship years.

Chapter 2 deals with the phenomenon of Anna Vissi, a cross-generational diva of the pista and one of the best-selling female popular singers in Greece who gained an iconic status during the late 1980s and 1990s. Polychronakis provides an overview of the shifting musical milieus defining Anna Vissi’s career, from entechno to elafro-laiko (light-popular song) and pop song to the Eurovision stage in 2004, her contribution in setting new trends merging “East” and “West”, which are here broadly contextualized in the post-1974 Greek entertainment culture and music industry’s developments. The reactions of certain elite musical circles against Vissi’s breaking away from the “art-popular” scene was indicative of the polarized discourse defining the post-Junta disapproval of “commercialized” popular song. The “Vissi phenomenon” and its ubiquity in the public sphere from the 1980s up until the mid-2000s is further explored in the framework of Greece’s Europeanization politics and the emergence of the local nouveaux-riches late capitalist luxurious pista entertainment practices, the lifestyle promoted by the private TV channels launched in the early 1990s hosting prime-time shows with musical celebrities. The massive success of pista culture associated with Vissi redefined, for Polychronakis, Easterness, while it provided the musical response to the East–West cultural and political merging reflecting Greek “modernization” during the 1990s. Vissi’s booming cultural capital not only manifested but also constituted the social dynamics enacted in the pista experience. Polychronakis stresses that despite relatively unproductive efforts to internationalize her career, especially through her Eurovision 2004 participation, Vissi remained a national cosmopolitan diva whose “cosmopolitanism is made in and for Greece”. By localizing cosmopolitan trends, she resignified Greekness and the national imaginary of contemporary Greece.

Bouzoukia staged performances were the precursors of urban “live music” entertainment discussed by Tsioulakis in Chapter 3. Based on extended ethnographic research, Tsioulakis focuses on the analysis of the shift from the participatory modality of the Athenian nightclub’s clientele towards a spectator mentality that is, as he argues, “a complex process entailing cultural politics, economic considerations, labor relationships, embodied subjectivities, and identity claims coming from a variety of competing social actors, including pop-singers, instrumentalists, entrepreneurs, and fans”. Whereas up until the 1990s “ola ta mora stin pista!” (all babes on the stage) was often the standard phrase signaling the provocatively sexualized female stage dancing, this reciprocal performative practice that could transform the on-stage power otherwise monopolized by the singer was recently abandoned and limited in the context of the “second program”, the side-show supporting the headliner’s core program. Stage policing was instrumental, among other changes in the entertainment culture, in the reconfiguration of the performance space, as Tsioulakis shows, further spectacularizing the pista (stage) enforcing neoliberal strategies that amplified the singer’s authority and marketability in the music industry. Such transformations within the performative event, Tsioulakis concludes, manifested the impact of neoliberal worldviews upon the pista experience, producing new forms of idol–fan relationships, privileging distance and mediatized representations over unmediated interactive experience.

1
Sentiment, Memory, and Identity in Greek Laiko Music (1945–1967)

Leonidas Economou

The history of Greek popular music after 1945 is virtually unknown territory for scholarly research, and has often been heavily distorted by researchers of rebetiko. The myth of rebetiko functioned as a mechanism of social distinction and exclusion, which devalued most of the musical forms and practices that coexisted with it, or appeared following its alleged disappearance at the beginning of the 1950s (Economou 2005). I will try to correct this picture and to map this unexplored territory for the period 1945 to 1967. I will begin with a discussion of the emergence of laiko traghoudi (popular song), the new genre of bouzouki music which succeeded rebetiko.¹ Most researchers posit the beginning of laiko in the mid-1950s following the periodization of rebetologists. This perspective contradicts the contemporary discourse of musicians and critics as well as other historical evidence showing that the transformation of rebetiko into laiko took place during the 1940s (Michael 1996). I will begin my narrative at the end of the war in 1945 and I will examine the different styles of laiko that developed up until 1967, when the establishment of the dictatorship marked the beginning of a new historical period.

The laiko genre is a broad and complex category that should not be conceived of in terms of certain essentialist characteristics, but rather as a kind of scene, which is defined, differentiated and transformed in terms of changing social practices, spaces, and representations. The deciphering of musical tendencies and styles cannot be solely based on aesthetic considerations, but needs to take into account the contextualization, reception, and use of the songs in different social milieus. Musicians and listeners participate in the social and cultural dynamic of their time, and they negotiate in subtle but discernible ways their position in respect to the major social issues and conflicts of their time (Stokes 1997, 2010; Lohman 2010). I will try to describe and understand the major subdivisions of the laiko scene by taking into account all the different aspects of musical performances, and especially the major aesthetic, political, and cultural issues that were involved in the experience of music. In this way, I hope to shed some light not only on the persons, the works, and the events of laiko music, but also on their complex associations with particular social sentiments and identities.

A Short Introduction to the Postwar Years (1945–1967)

Greek society emerged deeply scarred from the war period. The harsh occupation (1941–1944), the strong resistance movement, the brutal reprisals of the conquerors, and the atrocious civil war that followed (1947–1949) had caused immense catastrophe and pain. Human losses reached 7 to 8 percent of the population, the economy was ruined, and thousands of people had experienced violence, terror, and death. The civil war in particular had devastating effects not only upon human lives and material resources, but also upon the fabric of social life, which was heavily disrupted and blighted.

After the war, the ruling elites and the protective power established an oppressive regime of “limited democracy”, which aimed, on the one hand, at the control of the population, and on the other, at the realization of reforms that would lead to the development of the market economy. A configuration of power structures and institutional mechanisms repressed, excluded, or persecuted the enemies of the regime, and intervened at times of crisis. The economy began to grow quickly from the early 1950s. The growth rate of the Greek economy between 1950 and 1961 reached 5.5 percent and was one of the biggest in the world. The distribution of new income, however, was very unequal. The new economic elites, who were heavily dependent on state favors, and some social and professional groups began to benefit from growth. At the same time there was major unemployment and underemployment, and the majority of the lower and middle classes struggled to survive. This provoked the greatest immigration wave in recent Greek history, as between 1955 and 1970 more than 900.000 people moved to other countries for economic reasons.

The first post-civil war years (1950–1955) emerge from many descriptions as a bleak period. The signs of devastation were still visible in the social landscape, and a diffuse melancholy spread through the country. An atmosphere of hatred, fear, and suspicion permeated public life, policing civil society and impelling people to retire into themselves. At the same time, however, a process of rapid urbanization and modernization changed the face of the country. A generalized desire for economic progress and improvement, coupled with an eagerness for hard work and thrift, a disdain for rural and traditional ideas and values, and an eager embracing of many aspects of modernity contributed to the growth of the economy and set in motion powerful processes of social and cultural change.

The accumulated disaffection and distress about the oppressive political and economic regime was actively expressed from the late 1950s, and it created a strong and multifarious political and cultural movement, demanding political democratization, economic equity, and cultural renewal. The government of the center, which was triumphantly elected on this agenda in 1964, was overturned by the king and the deep state. The political instability and conflict that inevitably followed led eventually to the dictatorship of the Colonels (April 1967 to July 1974). At the same time the economy continued to grow quickly and the processes of social and cultural modernization accelerated. The middle classes expanded, and larger sections of the population experienced economic improvement. The level of consumption increased, and modern lifestyles became more widely disseminated. The traditional ideals of family, community, gender, and love were more radically questioned, and modern individualistic practices became more common and accepted.

The Institutional Context of Popular Music

The production, distribution, and consumption of popular music were shaped in new ways following the war. A cultural industry (situated almost exclusively in Athens) was gradually created through the progressive modernization, development, and interconnection of record, radio, film, press, and entertainment industries and networks. The pre-existing record companies were consolidated during the 1940s into two groups (Columbia ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Preface
• Series Foreword
• Introduction: Greek Popular Music Studies?
• Part I: Hugely Popular
• Part II: Art Song Trajectories
• Part III: Greekness beyond Greekness
• Part IV: Counter-Stories
• Part V: Present Musical Pasts
• CODA
• AFTERWORD
• Notes on Contributors
• Index