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Pop-Folk - Chalga Music Explained
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Chalga is a form of Bulgarian popular music drawing from Balkan folk traditions and incorporating Turkish, Greek, and Roma (gypsy) influences, as well as motifs from Balkan traditional music, flamenco and klezmer music. Often now indistinguishable from Bulgarian pop music, it remains popular with the "proletariat"-- music played in dance clubs and pubs. It is denigrated as a second-rate musical genre originating from foreign sources, and is known for vulgar lyrics, repetitious themes, and hook-laden dance rhythms. Commercial exploitation has created a vibrant night scene, especially in Sofia (the capital of Bulgaria), and many televised videos featuring extravagantly glamourized singers. Azis, a cross-dressing gypsy, epitomizes the deliciously cheap and addictive quality of the genre.
Chalga absorbs culturally diverse musical styles. Many chalga hits were Greek or Turkish hits, translated into Bulgarian, often in more complex musical arrangements. |
Development and origins
The word chalga comes from the Turkish word Çalg4 (pronounced ‘Chalguh’), which means ‘playing’ or ‘music’ and itself derives from Arabic. As the word suggests, the tradition came from the East and is not of Slavic origin. Indeed, the movement is derived from the art of the chalgazhia, a type of musician, normally a Tsigani (gypsy), who could play virtually any type of music, but added his own distinctive beat or rhythm to the song. Often a chalgazhia would not be able to read music, but instead played from memory on his caval, (an end-blown flute). Playing in groups at festivals or weddings, these performers initiated the popularization of chalga.
Throughout the communist years, this genre of music was not looked upon favourably by the establishment. The reasons behind this were manifold. Such simple peasant music had no real place in a go-ahead, forward-looking, modern socialist state, and when Zhivkov (the last communist leader of Bulgaria) decided in the 1980s to steer a more nationalistic tack, such Eastern-originated traditions were regarded as inferior to those with more purely Slavic roots. Chalga also came with a provocative hip-shaking dance and at times lewd lyrics, and thus its morality as well as its origins were dubious. It is also possible that, as an art form predominantly practiced and developed by the Tsigani, racial/ethnic discrimination perhaps played its part. (The issue of discrimination against gypsies remains a significant problem in Bulgaria today.) |
During the period chalga was discouraged in Bulgaria, in neighbouring Yugoslavia, which operated a much more flexible form of socialism, the genre flourished. Although ‘pop-folk’ was not played on Bulgarian radio stations, millions still managed to listen to it on stations broadcast from Serbia.
Throughout the Balkans, folk traditions were undergoing modernization. In Greece, syrtaki, a fusion of modern pop and Greek traditional dances and melodies, (who is not familiar with the strains of ‘Zorba the Greek’?), became popular. In Turkey too, a similar situation was emerging.
And then came 1989. The regime fell, restrictions were lifted and a new culture emerged. The "new" and "forbidden" were released from the underground. Chalga was freed. Chalga tunes, now openly played and available on cheap pirated tapes and CDs, swept the nation. A new generation of scantily-clad and cheap, huge-breasted "superstars" grabbed the public spotlight, performing songs that might have led to official sanctions only a year before. Lyrics concerning gun-running, gangsterism, and of course, sex, were the order of the day, danced to across the nation in new folkteki, or folk discos. The Chalga Era had arrived. |
Some fans consider the movement to have reached its peak around 1998-1999. Many chalga stars followed the ‘Mother of Chalga’, Ruse-born Gloria, (Ruse is a central Bulgarian city on the Danube) onto the scene, with pop-folk legends Tsvetilina, Kamelia, Valdez, and Kondyo all becoming household names. Several recording studios, headed by Payner, pumped out a steady stream of tracks every week.
The current government has cracked down on CD piracy and tightened up its copyright laws, of which chalga had always been a notorious offender.
International/Western-style pop, as well as the works of other Bulgarian musicians, both traditional and those exploring new avenues, (most notably its rap scene, headed by the Dope Reach Squad of Dobrich), and musicians such as Slavi Trifonov, began pushing in on chalga’s market share. By the advent of the new millennium, chalga was beginning to wane in popularity, but remains a vibrant genre. |
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