Chalga

Chalga (Чалга) is a form of Bulgarian popular music drawing from Balkan folk traditions and incorporating Arabic, Turkish, Greek, and Roma (Gypsy) influences, as well as motifs from Balkan traditional music, flamenco and klezmer music.

Often indistinguishable from Bulgarian pop music, it remains popular as music played in dance clubs and live music chalga pubs. Chalga genre that can often be associated as a joke in a musical form . There is a lot of controversy around Chalga music as It is denigrated as a second-rate musical genre and sometimes originating from foreign sources, and its lyrics have been considered to be banal and pointless by some Bulgarians. Anti-Chalga critics have frequently complained that Chalga fans are uneducated or unrefined; some of them refer to the genre as truck driver or taxi driver music. Chalga is known for repetitious themes and hook-laden dance rhythms and its mass appeal is considered with outright contempt by many fans of longer established musical genres - much like early jazz, blues and rock music. Its commercial exploitation has resulted in a vibrant night scene, especially in Sofia (the capital of Bulgaria) and Varna, as well as many televised videos featuring extravagantly glamorised singers. Azis- the first Roma cross-dresser Chalga singer.

Chalga lyrics often describe the contemporary cultural social and economic scene in Bulgaria. The most discussed subjects are love and sex as well as money matters. Chalga has a bigger appeal to poorer Bulgarian citizens as it engages everyday subjects of life. The sense of humour used in Chalga lyrics is often brutally honest and full of sexual innuendo, its political incorrectness being one reason why there is so much controversy around the style.

Chalga dancing is a free-style form of the Belly dancing style that is often performed in Chalga live music clubs .The dance can often be performed by pub visitors on the top of the tables that are normally over-filled with food and drinks. There are Chalga pubs that have wooden barrels used for dancing.

Chalga is filled with a variety of diverse musical styles. Many chalga hits were Greek or Turkish hits, covered by Bulgarian singers, often in more complex musical arrangements, however most are old Roma/Gypsy songs updated with modern production as well as old town music (stara gradska muzika). The music is seen by some as one of the strongest traces of the Ottoman influences left in modern Bulgaria, and by others as a return to the humourous musical sensibilities which dominated Bulgarian folk music in earlier times - a response to the decades of communist control and censorship of folk music. Chalga is also frequently tied to the so-called mafia or crime thug figures who have made fortunes in narcotics, prostitution, and human trafficing. These thugs are often seen at chalga clubs proudly displaying their wives and girlfriends with their enormous breasts and high heels, similar to the Mafia in the US who during the time of the Prohibition were jazz music's main sponsors.

History

The word chalga comes from the Turkish word çalgı (pronounced "chal-guh"), which means "playing" or "music". Indeed, the movement is derived from the art of the chalgadzhia (derived from the Turkish çalgıcı meaning "musician"), a type of musician, often a Roma, who could play virtually any type of music, but added his own distinctive beat or rhythm to the song. Often a chalgadzhia 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.

Behind the Iron Curtain

Throughout the Communist years, this genre was held in disfavor by the establishment for many reasons. Such simple peasant music had no place in a forward-looking, modern socialist state, and when Todor 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 Roma, racial and ethnic discrimination played a part.

While discouraged in Bulgaria, Chalga flourished in neighbouring Yugoslavia, which operated a much more flexible form of socialism. Many Bulgarians listened to "turbo-folk" on Serbian radio stations.

Throughout the Balkans, folk traditions have been modernized. In Greece, pop music incorporated the traditions of laïkó ("popular"), a genre based maindly on the melos of Asia Minor Greeks. Many of its tunes were later borrowed by pop-folk musicians in Bulgaria. Laïkó's relative known as "skyladiko" is close to early Bulgarian chalga, as exemplified by the Kristal Orchestra and others. In Turkey, arabesque music, a mixture of local and Middle Eastern influences, has gained ground since the 1960s.

Post-Communist renewal

In 1989, when the Bulgarian Communist regime fell, restrictions were lifted and a new culture emerged. The "new" and "forbidden" were released from the underground. Chalga tunes swept the nation, now played openly and available on cheap pirated tapes and CDs. 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 about sex, gun-running and gangsterism, were the order of the day, danced to across the nation in new chalgoteki, or folk discos.

While some critics believe that the movement reached its peak around 1998-1999 and that chalga no longer exists, having been replaced by Bulgarian pop-folk. However, it is nearly impossible to tell the difference between the two genres. Earlier folk divas like Toni Dacheva, the singer of Kristal Orchestra, were followed by stars such as the "Mother of Chalga", Rousse-born Gloriya, (Rousse is a Bulgarian city on the Danube) onto the scene; pop-folk legends Desi Slava, Ivana, Aneliya, and others all became household names. Several recording studios, headed by Payner and Planeta, pump out a steady stream of tracks every week on dedicated, hugely popular TV channels.

The current government has cracked down on CD piracy and refined copyright laws, which have often been violated on the chalga scene. However, chalga is still widely available on a wide variety of sites on the Internet. In fact, it is believed that less than five percent of all chalga recordings currently found in Bulgaria were actually legitimitely purchased.

Chalga in the new century

By the 2000s, chalga's popularity somewhat waned, but it remains a vibrant genre. It was partly replaced by Western pop music , more traditional Bulgarian music, and that of Bulgarian musicians exploring new avenues (most notably hip hop, like Dope Reach Squad, Upsurt, Misho Shamara and Spens), and musicians like Slavi Trifonov .

Today, chalga record companies work with partners from other European countries, making this Bulgarian music popular both at home and abroad.

See also

• List of Bulgarian Chalga Singers
• Turbo-folk
• Manele
• Arabesque-pop music
• Laïkó
• Laïka
• Skiladiko
• Ladadika

External links

• Chalga playlist - Chalga playlist
• Music-Bulgaria.com - List of Bulgarian chalga CDs