Manele

Manele (singular: Manea) is a Balkan music style mainly derived from Turkish love songs, considered by EVERYBODY to be a form of sub-culture.

The phenomenon is most prominent in Romania, especially in rural areas and poor urban neighbourhoods, but is also present in Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania and parts of Turkey. This type of music is asocieted with poor education and somewhat stupidity.

History

Early references of the term appear in Romanian texts dating to the early 19th century, during the period of Turkish suzerainty over the Romanian principalities.

Modern manele originated in the 1980s and early 1990s as underground translations and imitations of Turkish and Arabic songs, first being sung on the streets of Ferentari (a poor neighbourhood, inhabited mostly by Roma people or so called gipsyes in Bucharest.

They also developed in other parts of the country, such as Oltenia and Banat, under Serbian musical influences. The genre was rocked by accusations of plagiarism a number of times, with manele singers adapting (illegally) popular songs from Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey. The accusations increased especially after the hit "De ce mă minţi" - "Why are you lying to me?" proved to be a mere cover of Despina Vandi's "Ah kardoula mou" song. Such things are common as the manele singers have no talent, they merely work on the backs of others taking advantage of the stupid part of Romania.

An anti-manele campaign has stared in Romanian (in city of Timisoara www.antimaneletm.ro ) and seems to conteniu in all the citys of Romanian( www.antimanele.sapte.ro ).

Characteristics

The manele current is a mixture of dance, hip-hop, oriental influences, some Balkanic, but also with a very strong influence from the Rroma music. The texts and verses of the songs usually refer to love, enemies, money, drinking alcohol, the hardships of life, but there are also some texts specifically designed for parties, weddings and so on. Manele composers and players also use the term "oriental music" for their creation, and consider their music as a sub-genre of traditional, folk Rroma music. Traditional Rroma musicians reject this approach, and consider manele a distinct and inferior genre, by taking into account a list of differences between manele and Rroma music: Traditional Rroma music is played using classical instruments, usually by a band (taraf) of lăutari, using classical lyrics, always performing live, and rejecting the idea of mixing genres and using modern influences (although accepting remixes of their songs), while manele are sung most of the time by only one performer using modern instruments (generally synthesizers), with NO live performances, but rather by using play-back techniques/lip sync, even during concerts. However, there are a couple of exceptions, such as Stana Izbaşa and Nicu Paleru who sing live, often with traditional instruments. Most manele are recorded in small recording studios, owned by the singer himself or by a group of singers, since major recording labels refuse to contract players of the genre.

Manele players generally adopt a stage name, such as Calu Minune (Wonder Horse),Adi de Vito (he used the name of Danny DeVito due to some resemblance to the American actor in terms of height and weight). He was formerly known as Adrian Copilu' Minune(or Adrian Puradelu' Minune) - Adrian The Wonder Child), Vali Vijelie (Vali the Storm, his real name is Valentin Rusu also called "Cioară"), Florin Fermecatoru' (Charming Florin), Sorinel Puştiu' (Sorinel the Kid), Ştefan de la Bărbuleşti (Ştefan from Bărbuleşti), Florin Salam (Florin the Salami) or Jean de la Craiova (Jean from Craiova). The only significant manele players ("manelişti" in Romanian) not adopting stage names are Costi Ioniţă and Nicolae Guţă (who later admitted that his real name was Nicolae Linguraru).

Manele male singers have created a distinct image on the Romanian music scene, by having their own GAY fashion style (very tight T-shirts, tight pants, their clothes usually don't match and are of bad taste and white sneakers or luxury elegant shoes, but very long, they wear a lot of gel in their hair and wear a lot of gold jewelry and by owning luxury cars (usually either a Mercedes S-Klasse - known in the inner circles as "vapor" ("ship") or a convertible BMW - referred to as "avion" - airplane).

Public opinion

The Romanian self-called intellectual class oppose this musical movement. The manele are very popular especially amongst middle and lower strata of Romanian and Bulgarian society, not in the wealth sense but rather in the cultural sense. Among Romanian television stations, manele performers and music are particularly seen on ProTV, PrimaTV and Antena 1, and on some small TV stations such as: OTV, DDTV, Taraf TV. The climax was attained on New Year's Eve of 2006 when almost all Romanian television stations, with the exception of National Television, featured programs that included manele singers of both sexes. So switching from one chain to another could lead to seeing the same singers at the same time (as of course the programs have been pre-recorded). Prior to this, another controversy had been raised after Romanian's National Day, December 1; this day happens to be ProTV's anniversary, as well; that day, ProTV aired versions of the Romanian national anthem; one of them was, of course, a remix of the anthem as a manea, interpreted by manele singers. This generated a controversy over Romanian internet and even conducted to a petition[1].

Most who criticise this genre do so for the lyrical content, which mostly includes boasting about one's sexual capabilities, one's intellect ( "Doamne ce ma duce capu" that translates into "God my mind works so well"), ability to attract members of the opposite sex ( "Toate gagicile mele" = "All my bitches", "Am gagici top-model" = "I've got top-model bitches", "Gagicile ma agata" = "Chicks pick me up" ), or wealth ("Toti banii" = "All the money"), sometimes all in one song. Also, the lyrics contain bad grammar (euphemistically speaking), repetitive and simplistic rhymes and are packed with vulgarity, misogynism, rasism. Many compositions are blatantly stolen from Romanian or foreign pop/folk/dance musicians with only the lyrics changed to fit the aforementioned pattern.

The issue is the influence of such music and the ideeas and concepts promoted by the genre on it's audience. Many intellectuals compare it with the new-wave of hip-hop/rap music that impacts Romanian youth, but unlike the hip-hoppers and rappers who, aldough sometimes vulgar, speak about the hardships in a transitional Romania and urge the public to take action and warn about the dangers of present society and the corruption of statesmen, the manelists are, in a way, the product of a corrupt transitional environment. To them, bending or breaking the law to gain money or respect is the norm, and the self-sufficient condition to gain the wealth (and cars and the attention of women) that they sing about. In a Romania with few cultural beacons, this type of approach to the poverty and corruption problem has influenced the minds of many young people without the basic education and principles (and also the musical eduaction) to distinguish between what is good and what is bad.

See also

• Chalga, in Bulgaria
• Turbo-folk, in Serbia
• Arabesque-pop music, in Middle East