Greek, Russian and Hebrew songs: a short guide to asking for them

Mixtape Mood speaks four languages, and so does its music. You can ask for songs from Greece, Russia or Israel in any of them, and the whole tape will follow. It helps to know the main styles, because each has its own feeling, and naming one gets you much closer to what you have in mind.

Greek music

• Rebetiko: the urban songs of the 1920s to the 1950s, born in the ports and cafés of Piraeus and shaped by refugees from Asia Minor. Bouzouki, baglamas and songs about hardship, love and defiance. Markos Vamvakaris and Vassilis Tsitsanis are its best-known names.
• Laïko: Greece’s popular music from the 1950s on, which grew out of rebetiko. Big voices, bouzouki and songs for the taverna and the dance floor, from Stelios Kazantzidis to the stars of today.
• Éntekhno: “art song”, from the 1960s, when composers like Mikis Theodorakis and Manos Hadjidakis set Greek poetry to music that blended folk and classical. Thoughtful, melodic and often deeply moving.
• Greek rock and pop: from the 80s and 90s onward, with its own nostalgic classics that a whole generation knows by heart.

Russian music

• Russian rock: the bands of the 1980s and 90s, many from the Leningrad Rock Club, such as Kino, Aquarium and DDT. Poetry first, guitars second, and songs people still sing together.
• Bard songs (avtorskaya pesnya): one voice and an acoustic guitar, with the words at the centre. Bulat Okudzhava and Vladimir Vysotsky are the classic names.
• Estrada: Soviet and Russian pop and variety, the songs of television concerts and New Year’s Eve, with Alla Pugacheva as its best-known star.

Israeli music

• Songs of the Land of Israel (Shirei Eretz Israel): the classic songs sung together at gatherings, around campfires and on memorial days, many written by Naomi Shemer.
• Israeli rock: from the 1970s with Arik Einstein, Shalom Hanoch and the band Kaveret, through the 80s and 90s.
• Mizrahi music: shaped by Jewish communities from the Middle East and North Africa, from Zohar Argov to the pop stars of today. Warm, emotional and made for dancing.

How to ask

The easiest way is to write your mood in the language you want, or simply say it: “only Greek songs”, “Russian rock from the 80s”, “Israeli songs for a Friday morning”. You can also pick these styles in Sound: when the site is in Greek, Russian or Hebrew, that language’s styles appear first. Adding a decade helps a lot, because the sound of each country’s music changed as much as anyone’s did.

A note on accuracy

We check every song against music catalogues before it reaches you. Those catalogues are very complete for English-language music and less so for Greek, Russian and Hebrew songs, especially older ones, so now and then a regional song can’t be confirmed either way. Songs the catalogues rule out are dropped, but an unconfirmed one can still slip through. If you spot a song that doesn’t exist or has the wrong year, write to us: it helps us improve the checks for everyone.