National Geographic Music (National Geographic)

Although Greece's music is for many listeners inextricably linked to bouzoukis (long-necked lutes) and ouzo-soaked, plate-smashing spins of Zorba the Greek tunes, a closer listen reveals a rich musical crossroads that reaches out to Western Europe, the Balkans, the Middle East and western Asia, and yet stands firmly on its own unique terrain. Whether it's heard as contemporary laiko pop or centuries-old Byzantine liturgical melodies, sprightly nisiotika dances from the sunny islands or the dark-hued and earthy sound of the double-reeded zourna and the daouli drum from northern Thrace, Greek music is incredibly varied for such a tiny country—one with a worldwide diaspora population that now outpaces the number of Greeks living in the country. (And of course, the diaspora groups have lent their own unique imprint to contemporary Greek music.)

While some musicologists have claimed links between the music of the past few centuries to that of ancient Greece, it's hard to discern the roots of much of Greek music, or even whether many "Greek" instruments, styles and even melodies historically passed from Greece to the Arab, Persian and Turkish worlds or vice versa. Either way, similarities abound, whether in such examples as the stringed lyra from Crete, which bears a direct relationship to the kemence fiddles of Persia and Turkey or in the rembetika style popularized by Greek Jewish singers in Smyrna (Izmir) and Constantinople (Istanbul). Moreover, the lush and romantic songs called kantadhes from islands like Corfu, Lefkada, and Zakynthos sound positively Italian, and various ethnic minorities like the Roma (Gypsies), Vlachs and Albanians have added their own distinct traditions to the Greek mix.

Nevertheless, Greek music of the 20th and 21st century has by and large resisted European homogenization: even today, British and American superstars are generally outnumbered by Greek names on the top of the country's pop charts. Newcomers, however, will probably find more to love in older styles such as the rembetika stars from the 1920s and beyond to more modern art music by such composers as Manos Hatzidakis and Mikis Theodorakis. —Anastasia Tsioulcas