Rebetiko is the Byzantine influenced folk song of early urban centres in Greece, Asia Minor, Alexandria and also the USA, performed by Greek immigrants to the states from Greece. immigration is one moto of the rebetiko tradition, relevant to the wave of immigrants that traveled to Greece from asia minor after the defeat of the Greek army by kemal and the neoturks. Other common places in rebetiko is love, everyday life, conflicts with the police, including the use of guns and finally drugs. hundreds out of the some thousands known rebetika (songs recognised as rebetiko) refer to hasish (χασίς), heroine (πρέζα), even cocaine. musicaly, the kind is based on Byzantine-Eastern influenced styles, generally divided in two categories according to the use of instruments: the Asia Minor-Smyrneiko, characterised by the use of violin, tampouri, sanduri and kanonaki and the piraeus style, with buzuki, baglamas and guitar being prominent.
Rebetiko was an outlaw music at the first years of its appearance in the Greek music scene, and the places where rebetiko musicians (rebetes) and rogues (mages) used to smoke (tekes) were notorious outlaw haunts, often described in the lyrics of rebetika. the transition from illegality to "national" musical expression is no exception here: rebetiko was the basis for laiko, the dominant musical form in Greece on the second half of the century, and many of the early rebetiko tradition are now legendary figures in modern Greece. .
