Many readers may not understand what commonality the seemingly disparate articles in this book share. The answer is simple: all of these texts are related to the, up until now, invisible Rembetology.

In 1990, I presented the concise booklet Rembetology (first published in Lettre International in Berlin), where I discuss the issues surrounding rembetiko music. I am not the inventor of the term Rembetology. This honor belongs to Manos Hadjidakis, who, in May 1978, signed the article Rembetology in the Radio Program.

With this book, I have attempted to bring to light certain hidden details that, of course, relate to Rembetology. I hope that in this way, on the one hand, I will assist new Rembetologists, and on the other hand, I will enlighten friends of classic rembetiko. We will see if I have achieved these two goals.

(. . .) [Excerpt from the text of the preface]