Gypsy Punk
| Gypsy punk | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | Punk rock, gypsy music, folk punk, post-punk, klezmer |
| Cultural origins | Late 1990s, United States |
| Typical instruments | Guitar, drums, bass guitar, fiddle, accordion |
| Regional scenes | |
| New York City | |
Gypsy punk is a hybrid musical genre that crosses traditional Romani music with punk rock. One of the first rock groups to incorporate elements of punk and Gypsy music was Motherhead Bug, which was active mostly in the early 1990s. A broader audience became aware of the genre after the band Gogol Bordello released the album Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike, with front man Eugene Hütz describing their performance as a "Gypsy Punk Cabaret".
Gypsy punk bands usually combine rock beats and instrumentation with more traditional Gypsy instrumentation such as drums, tambourine, accordion, fiddle, trumpet and saxophone.
The origin of the term Gypsy Punk may be disputable, but it is agreed that the Romani culture is how the style of it began. The Romani people, who are spread out throughout the world, have affected the music industry in the west as seen through bands such as Gogol Bordello. Eastern European and traditional instrumentation and multilingual lyrics are both common characteristics of Romani music. In the case of Gogol Bordello, the upbeat tempo and “punk scream-singing” along with these common “gypsy” characteristics create a concrete example of what is known as gypsy punk. “The word “gypsy” coupled with the term “punk” has interesting implications in that punk encapsulates a particular mode of rebellion, anarchy, and resistance in a Western context” which is good to note since at the time Gogol Bordello and other bands were introducing this genre, “the punk movement became identified in mass culture as the definitive statement of the annihilation of musical and societal norms, collectively rejecting the rules of the past because of the bleak and hypocritical present and future they provided”. This is to say that the Roma that have settled down in the west have taken elements from “Romani music in a style that is indebted to Western punk” Because gypsy punk is a mixture of traditional music and popular music to the western culture, the Romani are colonizing and seemingly settling into a loose identity of their own. The music itself “is considered to be a post-colonial movement”.
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