Greek rock

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Rock and roll spread around the world in the 1950s and 60s, entering Greece in the middle of the latter decade. Greek performers in the field include Jimi Quidd (born Jimmy Hatzidimitriou, later of The Dots and producer for Bad Brains), the Bob Dylan of Greece, Dionysios Savopoulos, who also plays rembetika and laika, and Pavlos Sidiropoulos, the most important representative of Greek folk-rock.

Greek rock first peaked in the early seventies, while Greece was still ruled by a military dictatorship. Bands include Socrates Drank The Conium (progressive hard rock with English lyrics), Exadaktylos (humorist-political lyrics), Peloma Bokiou (Santana-like Latin rock with Greek lyrics), Poll (folk with vocal harmonies, Greek lyrics).

The fall of the dictatorship was followed by a total cultural dominance of left wing intellectuals (though the government was still moderately right-wing). For them, rock was an "imported" (xenoferto) form of music and they instead promoted music based on local traditions like Thodorakis's compositions. Greek rock was revived at the end of the seventies, with the first punk and new wave bands as well as some older artists. The ex-frontman of Exadaktylos, Dimitris Poulikakos made an LP in 1976, and Sidiropoulos, ex-frontman of "Damon kai Fintias" and "Mpourmpoulia" in the early 1970s made an LP with the new band Spyridoula.

At the beginning of the 1980s, there is a musical enrichment in the scene as more and more bands flourish, despite the extensive censorship on forms of art that in the later years gradually stopped. One example of this era is that of Mousikes Taksiarchies (Musical Brigades directly translated) with frontman Jimmis Panousis. The lyrical content of the band for the time was considered to vary from humorous and satyric to all-out criticizing mainly towards the political life of Greece, nevertheless the band played music with rich musical content with a mixture of many influences along with rock such as reggae and funk.

With the second generation, the scene produced also some of the finest electric guitar players such as Christophoros Krokidis and Spyros Pazios who to date are still active in various projects. During the mid-1980s, a band called The Last Drive appeared, whose outstanding performance both in Greece and internationally deeply influenced the scene. In 1985 it was the great birth of the modern greek rock as it is known today and this thanks to two bands from Thessaloniki: Trypes with their first album and two years later in 1987 a trio-band called Mora Sti Fotia (meaning: Babes on Fire, name inspired by Baby's on Fire song by Brian Eno playing a combination of new wave, punk, soft and hard rock).

After a temporary break-up of Mora sti Fotia in the early 1990s a new Greek rock band with the same guitar player appeared enriched with more modern electronic sound but also with more younger bands that created also their personal styles and are favorite up to date. This band was called Xilina Spathia (also originating from Thessaloniki) meant to be one the three greatest historic rock bands of Thessaloniki along with Trypes and Mora sti Fotia. Maskes, Diafana Krina, Endelexeia, Flowers of Romance,Pyx Lax,Katsimiha brothers and others followed up. Some bands also had international acclaim with some airplay on MTV such as Magic De Spell with a song about the war in Yugoslavia, a very hard achievement regarding the lack of effective approach to the rest of Europe mainly because of the different language and minimum means.

By gradually changing the manner of expression from non-conformist (mainly due to the political situations) to a wider scale the Greek scene of rock didn't lose its musical richness. Constantly bands emerge that create very successful records and carry on without being forgotten as soon as airplay and promotion ceases. Such are the examples of Domenica, Raining Pleasure, Diafana Krina and others who take carefully elements from various musical movements and bring it to the spotlight in a modern and mostly successful way.

Other famous rock groups are: Panx Romana, Domenica, Endelexeia, Arnakia, Ta fota pou Svinoun. The best greek mainstream rocker of all time is considered to be: Basilis Papakonstantinou.

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