The aim of this study is to explore the sociological and ethnological dimensions of rebetiko music, which dominated for about half a century in the folk tradition of the urban centers of our country and constitutes a key manifestation for understanding the structures and evolution of modern Greek society, as well as for finding our -rarely found- modern Greek cultural identity.

The comparison of international research data and the results of the analysis of a sample of rebetiko songs proves to be valuable and enables the author to identify the elements that establish rebetiko as a cultural phenomenon of the urban center, to codify the class, social, and cultural characteristics of sub-proletarian circles, to clarify the relationships between national and class culture, and to demonstrate the universality of the phenomenon, particularly for societies in the phase of capitalist integration.

Additionally, it allows him to confirm the close relationship between class and broader social characteristics of the sub-proletariat on one hand and ideology on the other, and to study the psych-emotional attitudes, mindsets, collective representations, and the cultural, in general, framework expressed by rebetiko music.

[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]