Rabiz (music genre)

Rabiz (in Armenian Ռաբիս or Ռաբիզ and in Russian рабис) is a youth-oriented pop genre of Armenian popular music with elements of Armenian folk music. Rabiz singers are with few exceptions male. Rabiz is characterized by catchy beats and dance type music and its subjects tackle mostly love and partying (known as kef), but also talk about love of family or the Armenian motherland. More recently rabiz songs have witnessed heavy instrumentation and arrangements and electronic dance music elements.

According to many sources the term Rabiz stems from Russian phrase "рабочее исскуство" (raboche'e iskustvo) used during Soviet times, literally meaning "labour's art". However there are some who believe that the word comes from Turkish or Arabic roots. The word "rab" means creator or god, while Arabic name "aziz", which is used by many Armenians as meaning "darling" could perhaps be considered another root, thus referring to the genre performers as dear creators.[1]

Though large group of singers and their listeners refer to rabiz as a music genre, the term is also used widely to refer to a certain type of fashion and lifestyle.[1] The Armenian language has also been affected by rabiz culture with a new vernacular developed as a sub-language.[1] Criticized by many music critics, it has great similarities to Middle Eastern arabesque music. Main artists of the genre include Aram Asatryan, Tatoul Avoyan (known by the mononym Tatoul) and Hayko Ghevondyan (known as Spitakci Hayko or more commonly by the mononym Hayko).

Popular amongst youth in Armenia, rabiz has more recently spread throughout the Armenian diaspora particularly in California where it is known as "LosAngelnots" (in Armenian Լոսանջելնոց). Many of the performers of the genre are now greatly popular with Armenian diaspora listeners as well.

"Mi Gna"

In 2016, Rabiz music took truly international proportions of success with the viral hit "Mi Gna" released by Super Sako on his album Love Crimes. Although the song existed earlier in Armenia and was composed by Artak Aramyan, the remixing of the song and adding of English lyrics to the original song by California DJ Super Sako made it a big hit all over the world. The now bilingual catchy song featured vocals by Hayko Ghevondyan, a popular rabiz singer known as Spitakci Hayko. "Mi Gna" hit #1 on Shazam Top 100 list and its YouTube video upload has garnered, without even the release of any official music video, over 143 million views on YouTube as of January 2018.[2] "Mi Gna"has also resulted in an immense increase of interest in rabiz music worldwide with many of its artists getting more fame after success of "Mi Gna". The song has been subject to a great number of remixes as well as language versions including Albanian, Arabic, Bulgarian, Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, Kurdish (Sorani), Romanian, Russian and Turkish. A trilingual Armenian/English/French version remixed by French-Congolese rapper Maître Gims made it a big hit in France and French-speaking world.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "The Rabiz Phenomenon Revisited – Notes From Hairenik | An Armenian Blog". Noteshairenik.blogspot.com. Retrieved 2012-09-28.
  2. ↑ Super Sako (2016-08-17), Super Sako "Mi Gna" - ft: Hayko, retrieved 2017-09-14
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