Romania

Folk music is, on the one hand, the oldest form of Romanian musical creation, characterised by great vitality until our times, and on the other hand, a defining source of the cultured musical creation, both religious and lay. In the conservation of folk music an important role has been played, besides the permanence of the audience, by the great performers. One of them, Gheorghe Zamfir, is famous throughout the world today, having made known a typically Romanian folk instrument, the panpipes.

Nowadays Romanian folk becomes more and more popular internationally under the title Balkan beat. Most Balkan beats come forth from the Roma music tradition ( with Fanfare Ciocărlia as best example) and the Wallachian province. This province is home to the taraf bands, which are perhaps the best-known expression of Romanian folk culture. Dances associated with tarafs include brâu, geamparale, sârba and hora. The fiddle leads the music, with the cimbalom and double bass accompanying it. Lyrics are often about heroes like the Haidouks. Taraf de Haidouks is an especially famous taraf, and have achieved international attention since their 1988 debut with the label Ocora. The Haidouks first attained visibility as lăutari, traditional entertainers at weddings and other celebratory occasions.

That folk pop plays such an important part doesn’t mean that more international styles like hiphop, dance and rock played no part in Romanian music. With the dubious reputation of being one of the centre point of international CD piracy Romanians had access to millions of international music albums since the invention of the cd burner in 1997. This wasn’t very positive for creating a local pop scene though because any album was immediately pirated and international record company’s were hesitant to enter the Romanian market. The tide changed with the international success of boyband O-Zone and their European hit "Dragostea din tei".