ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates and discusses selected aspects of this process with reference to rebetika in Australia, home to supposedly half a million Greeks at some point. Rebetika songs are arguably the artistic genre of Greek migration and diaspora par excellence. It takes the liberty of standardising the variant transliterations as rebetika', rebetis', rebetes' etc. The special power of music and dance in processes of identity formation, maintenance, transformation and affirmation is widely acknowledged. It illustrates not only how rebetika became an emblematic music of the Greek-Australian community in both its self-image and the expectations of the host society, but also how its appeal crossed generational and ethnic boundaries. The chapter notes both convergences and divergences between Greece and Melbourne in this regard and identify instances where the diaspora might be seen to be singing back', in the sense of disputing or subverting metropolitan cultural primacy by counterposing its own hybrid forms to notions of cultural purity and authenticity.
