Abstract
Yannis Zaimakis
University of Crete
Contested worlds in the outskirts of cities. The musical biography of a rebetis over the course of the 20th century
Drawing from a range of biographical accounts, musical performances and ethnographic testimonies, the paper explores the musical biography of an amateur singer (1907-2001) and traces the cultural memory of a non-commercial pre-rebetico musical scene in Heraklion of Crete. Memories of and about music within the particular context of everyday life of the city outskirt around the Lakkos brothels district, hashish dens and portside haunts carry their own histories that are intertwined with nostalgic reflection, acts of authentication, meaning and ambivalence. Biographical accounts functions as a form of cultural resistance to modernization of urban life and commercialized music which led to the marginalization of the subject’s musical identity in a changing social world.
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