Talk:Chalga

i made the first major change to the chalga entry to correct what i thought was one-sided negative view. i see my theme-- that chalga is "bulgarian"--remains. i have watched the development of the entry with interest. with each change, i think the writer reveals his or her prejudices.

happily, even those writers who may be critical of chalga seem to acknowledge that it continues to be a factor in contemporary bulgarian culture.

as someone who loves chalga, i can only hope that, whatever the evolution may lead to, chalga stays vibrant. absorbtion of extra-national influences is inevitable. but, i hope that chalga resists temptations to become indistinguishable from international dance music which invades and dominates. it will be a sad day if all the dance clubs play the same ibiza-house-hip hop--london-paris-tokyo-new york euro mix.

chalga sux! most people don't listen to it! it's really rubbish!

NPOV, turbofolk

Tried to make the entry more neutral in tone; still needs work and better organization, so leaving the Wikify template in. One aspect relates to turbofolk: underground and vulgar revolutionary music appears to have been a common movement in the formerly communist Eastern bloc nations -- perhaps good for a separate article on this, with links to the different musical styles? Deirdre 22:04, 9 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I thinks I loves chalga--at least if it is what I think it is; is it what the "Orkestra Bulnari" plays? I have a copy of a recording of theirs that a friend picked up in Bulgaria when were were there in 2000; we referred to it as the "naked chick" tape as it features, well, a voluptuous naked woman on the cover. The title is (pardon my possibly poor transliteration) "Nai Dobrite Kyuchetsi", which is appropriate as it's mostly chockeks (kyucheks if you prefer). I love this music and would like to find more of it, but haven't been able to locate any.

I also think the part of the article that someone above was complaining about being "POV" is actually correct and should stand, at least the statement that chalga is often "denigrated as a second-rate musical genre originating from foreign sources". While this is far from my feeling about the music, I can attest that there is great hostility towards this music by Bulgarians; at least there was in 2000 when I last visited. Our tour guide, a well-known Bulgarian singer, described this music as "jerk music". I wonder how much of this animosity is due to the ethnicity of some of the musicians: I understand that Vulnari, like other similar bands, are ethnic Turkish Bulgarians (and it's well-known how the Turkish minority in Bulgaria has been abused and mistreated in recent history). Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to open that can of worms ... --66.52.186.118 07:12, 13 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

süper!!

turkish..yürrrüü beeeee müzik bu işte english.. thats the music bulgarian..????

Some notes

Yeah, but although chalga sucks, it's really popular, and that's why Bulgaria is going to die.

Heh, who said DRS are leading the rap scene? They are cool, but then again, there are artists more popular than them, and there is an underground movement in Bulgaria, too.--84.43.145.225 13:17, 25 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

negative

Meh, why is this article so negative? look at any style of music, no matter how it "sucks" the article itself rarely devotes the bulk of the first section to why it sucks. come on! Dan Carkner 14:57, 30 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

no sexually explicit lyrics

I removed the text "sexually explicit lyrics" from the article. There are no sexually explicit lyrics in chalga as far as I know. In Bulgaria, they are common only in the hip-hop/rap music as far as I know. --V111P 01:53, 12 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Challenging reasons given for official disapproval of chalga

The article currently says, in a section attempting to explain why there was official disapproval of the genre:

Such simple peasant music had no place in a forward-looking, modern socialist state ...

I challenge this statement. Based on my knowledge of Bulgarian folk music, if anything, the state (that is, the Communist Bulgarian government) threw its full support behind state ensembles that exalted this music ("simple peasant music"). I think the other conclusions of this section are correct, that chalga was dissed because of its "lewd" and sensual nature. +ILike2BeAnonymous 20:32, 23 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

slavi replaced chalga?

what? --chaizzilla 04:56, 4 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The Chalga subject is presented by single pole view witch is totally incorrect!!!!

I believe that is really inappropriate to make sleeping generalizations and express an opinion unsupported by any facts…. The way Chalga topic is presented with anti-Chalga personal opinion. I can only say that this is very childish to ignore the fact that Chalga Music is one of the most selling genre on the Bulgarian music market if not the biggest. The presented point is truly gunmetal and it would be a shame if it is published as Chalga music is mainly being listened by poorer Bulgarians who don’t have computers and internet and wont be able to defend their point of view in appropriate full scale way. If we want to show a more real bi-polar site of the information I would suggest the fowling version.

Please read it

This version is not absolutely perfect but is better than the current one. Here it is:

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^{[citation needed]}, 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 ^{[citation needed]} , 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 ^{[citation needed]} .

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

External links

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

ast:Chalga bg:Чалга hu:Csalga pl:Czalga rmy:Chalga

Chalga music is probably the biggest selling genre in Bulgaria and it really disserves a proper