Why Does Greek Music Sound Eastern? - And Why It’s a Dumb Question

Man talks in Greece about This video is an in-depth discussion and analysis of the discrepancy between our typical understanding of Greece worldwide, and its nature as cultural force situated between and having aspects of both Western and Eastern cultural zones, and how recent political narratives emphasised the former at the expense of the latter. Please remember that as always, these discussions have a broad historical scope, therefore responses like “what about Greek jazz/rock/metal“ are irrelevant to a scope focused on the permanent generalities of Greek music over 2500 years, not just the previous 50. Articles and media mentioned: The Westernisation of Greek Music by Katy Romanou: Alexander Lingas’ discussion and papers on the controversies of Byzantine chant: 00:00 The Zorba, Italian-like sound is a regional exception 05:44 No, Greek music wasn’t “orientalised,” it was always “oriental” 07:18 Why are we even surprised that Greek music sounds eastern? 08:42 The invention of a “Western” Ancient Greece 15:44 Blaming the “evil Westerners,” is easy, but natives oft colonise themselves 24:32 The Magic Wall between Anatolia and Europe 29:52 We can accept Greece being influenced by the East, but not being eastern herself 34:12 How tourism reinforces misconceptions 44:08 Thermopylae: the European West vs the Brown East 48:14 East and West are overlapping circles, not separate boxes. 50:32 Conclusions