Geske

How I became addicted

160 posts in this topic

Geia sou Kosta,

There you have spoken !! Bravo.

I wish I could feel the same proudness (is that an English word?) for my country. I'm not ashamed of Belgium either. I just don't care so much about it.

Although it has an interesting history ...

It must be the climate that's so unattractive, too much grey.

Micki

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Micki!

I was reading your post where you said that you are addicted and so on...and see what, your title, what a coinsidence, has become "Dalaras Addicted"...you will need a lot more posts to overcome it... :mad:

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       Both my parents like Dalaras becauce of his voice,his ability as a musician,his political beliefs.So since I was young

I 've been listening to Dalaras.I loved him.My parents tell me that my favourite song since I was a little boy used to be

"Mi milas kindynevi i Hellas".The first LP's we had in our house was "Radar", "Ta tragoudia mou" ,"Latin".That's the way I became addicted.

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I thought we have had a lot of new members since the last post in this topic, so maybe some of them would like to tell us how any why they became Dalaras fans.

Come on guys - don't be shy - we're all friends here :wow:  :)  :)

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Well, my story is not that long!!!!

I first listened to Ntalaras in 1992-93 when I was 12 and that was live! I saw an advertisement on Tv about a concert in Irodio theatre about Cyprus with Marios Tokkas and George Ntalaras. I found it interesting and I told my older sister to go to the concert. I was totally impressed by Ntalaras, his voice and the songs. By the way none of my parents listen to this kind of musik. They are both fans of classical musik.

After the concert I started to look for more and more information about Ntalaras. My sister gave me my first cassete of Ntalaras as a christmas present which included Na tane to 21, Oi eleftheroi ki oreoi, itan 5 itan 6, exo ena kafene, ax xelidoni mou, mi mou thymoneis matia mou,h skonh, o metoikos, etc.

Then I bought 'Kalos tous', which was his new lp at that time and now I am a great fun of Ntalaras having most of Ntalaras cd's in my collection.

One issue I want to mention is that I find it EXTREMELY difficult to find people who listen to Ntalaras. It is more common to find people who hate Ntalaras(being unable to explain why they hate him) especially in Greece.

So, a question which could also be a new topic is:

WHY ARE THERE SO MANY PEOPLE WHO DISLIKE NTALARAS???

(This is another issue that proves how important Nikolas's site is.)

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Niko, you are so right!!! While members in Europe and America find it hard to meet people that listen to Dalaras and know about him, here in Greece things are a bit different. Whereas everybody knows Dalaras, it's extremely hard to find people that don't have a bad opinion about him, not to mention people that like his music... Indeed most people either hate him, as if they know him personally (hate is a very strong feeling and in order to hate somebody you must really know him a lot) or in the best cases they simply have second thoughts of the kind "And why is he doing that?"  and doubts about him and his causes...

And have you noticed that? They almost never critisize him as a singer, but most of the times as a person...  :mad: They say they don't like him, or some  even say they don't like his music and songs and voice, but in the end it all comes to him as a person... They seem annoyed by him, not as a artist (because even if you don't like someone's work, that doesn't mean that you will attack him personally...) but as a person!!! :mad: They say things that don't stand up to any critisism... they accuse him of things that have nothing to do with music...

For example, recently, I was talking with a musician... And I asked him about Dalaras. And he said: "Dalaras? The guy does not have a voice. (!!!) And he started explaining this to me, by saying that his range is limited etc... and as I was pointing out that this is not true, he accused Dalaras 1)of spending too much time on music ( :mad: Can you believe that???  :confused:  A musician accuses another musician because the second one spends time, too much time on his work, on music!!! Amazing isn't it?!!! :wow: ) and 2)of neglecting his wife!!!! :wow:  :wow:  :wow:  This time the guy was out of limits. A) How can he know such thing? Does he spent time with them? Is he a friend of theirs? NO!!! And B) Even if this the case, what does this has to do with whether Dalaras is a good singer and musician? What's the connection? There is NO connection!!! In the end he concluded that he sings better that Dalaras... :sarcasm:  :razz: But I had stopped paying attention to him...

 

   These people are mad!!! They simply don't worth it trying to explain to them your point of view. They are blind and in our case deaf!!! :mad: And yes, jealousy is one factor, if not the only one. For this musician I'm sure that he really meant it when he said that he sings better than Dalaras.  And I'm sure that he is jealous that Dalaras is who he is and everybody knows him, whereas this is not the case with him. I don't know if his voice is good, but saying that you sing better that someone of Dalaras status, is something that you should let others to judge it and not say it you for your own voice...

Another reason is ignorance. (though I personally don't accept it as a justification for not liking someone, not to mention accusing him.) People should first try and find out who Dalaras is and then judge him... And if they don't know they can simply say so, and not repeat things that others have said, just to make an impression. Because in the end it's a matter of making impression. Me, that I am so smart and clever know that Dalaras has done this and that and that his voice is like that etc... And if you asked them what they know about music, most of the times they know NOTHING Not even the notes and the scales!!! Yet they can judge that he is not a good singer, that the way he playes the guitar is not correct, that he didn't said that part correctly!!!And as if this isn't enough they accuse him as a person as well!!! And if you ask them if they have ever met Dalaras in order to get a personal opinion (not that I believe that from seeing a person once or twice you can form a correct opinion about him...) they will reply: NO!

I don't know a bit about Dalaras. I'm always discovering. Christo, you asked me why I started guitar lessons. Well, here is the answer. I want to know what exactly it is that drives me crazy about him, his voice and his music. I want to be able to understand every single thing he does and why he does it. Listening is no longer enough. I have to find out what it is that I listen to.

I don't mean that those who don't know about music cannot have an opinion. They can judge whether they like the outcome or they don't. And they can say it. " I don't like Dalaras!" or "I like Dalaras!". That's accepted! : But you can't tell me that he cannot play the guitar (I've heard that too!!!) and you yourself have no idea about music!!!  We simply can't just go on and say things about someone 's work if we don't know how this work is done, can we? :confused

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Niki,thank you for your very interesting post.You write about some things,I have thought about so often.                         Since I have heard Dalaras the first time, there is no other music for me. I like Sting,Freddy Mercury,Eric Clapton and some other good musicans. But in my car I have only Dalaras CDs.That says so much!In my whole life ,music was very important.What is the reason ,that I am so fascinated from Dalaras??? :)                                                           Niki you are right,there are only people who like Dalaras or dislike Dalaras. Nothing between.                                        Can anybody tell me the reason for DALARAS MAGIC????         Franz

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Niki

While this man might be just stupid, we have to mention that most young people who start singing, usually in small clubs or so, and have ambitions for their future in music, try to follow Dalaras' example. They try to sing his way, they sing his songs, they sing what he sang in second versions etc. This is really so much true.

You will realize it if you have a walk in all those venues and live music 'student' places, where usually a young person, maybe student, holds the major part of the program. I won't say whether it is helpful for them to do this but I can say that they do so. That means something about the case we are discussing, doesn;t it?

Niki, please answer this question: were you in a better mood before or after the discussion with that man? Maybe the answer to that question shows the way to face such situations...  :)

p.s: to use an emoticon, there must be a blank character before it. Also a blank one after it, but this is added automaticaly. Just to explain why sometimes emoticons appear where not expected

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Niki, some people are just a bit stoopid, like that musician you talked to. And to a thinking person, that is always infuriating.

A propos Dalaras, I'd like to contribute something that is maybe seen more easily from outside Greece, than from within.

Dalaras is very great.

I mean, he is VERY great. What is called in English "a big fish in a little pond", I think.

Because Greece is not a very large country.

Now a musician of that stature in, say, the US, has more "company"; there are more "greats", and more room for them to be great in. I think many musicians in Greece might resent Dalaras for having a sort of "monopoly". Not that he is doing it on purpose: he can't help being a genius... But others might feel "it all goes to him, nothing left for us". And also "we're always being compared to him".

Some are honest about it, and are themselves as best they can. Some are jealous and admit it. Some simply imitate him. And many are jealous and won't admit it, and say nasty things about him instead, to try and make him smaller, to make room for themselves.

Even though Greece consumes much more music per head of the population than, say, Holland, it can still support only a finite number of musicians; and if people feel that one musician is getting more than his fair share... they get nasty.

Oh, and for Franz: "to find, by luck or intelligence, that which you were not looking for". (Durch Glueck oder Geschick das finden, was man nicht suchte).

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I think you are right about Dalaras, Geeske. In fact, the same applies for Kazantzidis. Of course, Kazantzidis and Dalaras are different and belong to different periods, but Kazantzidis is as great as Dalaras, and Dalaras is as great as Kazantzidis. Your analysis is good for both singers who played their roles both in their times. Dalaras is still playing his role. So is Kazantzidis, in a certain way.

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I am sorry, I don't understand something. If it is that hard to find people who like this person, then who is packing the places he is performing, and the stadiums and the theaters, and who has made him the best selling artist in Greece according to the number of the albums he has sold. It can't be just me, can it? Well, who cares. Even if it were just me I wouldn't give a  #######.

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this think is getting smarter

ha ha :)

But I removed 'stupid' from the bad words list, because it has much more usefulness rather than uselessness. However, I also included the basic bad words, with spaces between the characters, only to make smarter the way we are going to overcome it :)

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ah - an invitation to creative misspelling!

let's try... hhellll! fhukk! dammn!

soc, I was asking myself the same question.

I think they must include the many people who are jealous and don't admit it. They go to the concert and are magicked, and then afterwards they resent it and turn nasty. They don't want to be enchanted, they want to be critical... and they don't know the difference between nasty/destructive and having a mind of one's own.

And they include all the people who like him, but don't dare to speak up in the face of criticism. Plenty of those around. And people trying to make themselves look interesting by looking down upon anyone too popular - is that restricted to Dalaras, or to Greece?

:sarcasm:

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were you in a better mood before or after the discussion with that man? Maybe the answer to that question shows the way to face such situations...

Nikola, to answer your question... at first I was quite upset and dissapointed... I expected that a musician and a singer would appreciate Dalaras far more easily. However this was not the case... And imagine that this guy sings mostly songs that Dalaras has sang...and maybe he does imitate him as well...(don't know the last thing...) Then I realised that in the end what matters is what I think. Quite selfish approach you may say (and probably be right) but after one point it doesn't worth it, loosing your time and ruining your mood for those people. It still makes me sad, but I'm trying to ignore them...

And soc, as for what you say, I can verify that I know quite a lot people who buy Dalaras CD and go to his concerts and yet they don't like him or they say so. A friend has all his CDs, has gone to many concerts, especially from the previous years, and yet he is so reluctant and has so many doubts about Dalaras that I really cannot understand why he keeps buying his CD...

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A friend has all his CDs, has gone to many concerts, especially from the previous years, and yet he is so reluctant and has so many doubts about Dalaras that I really cannot understand why he keeps buying his CD...

Ζήλεια μου, ζήλεια μου

σαν την αγάπη είσαι τόσο δυνατή

μίλα μοου, μίλα μου,

μα φύγε όταν έρθει εκείνος να με βρει.

(as Χαρούλα whispered in my ear).

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Nikki, from what you said I dont think it is worth talking abouth that musician. He cant be serious!

The fans of Ntalaras in Europe and America is the result of so many concerts that Ntalaras gave all over the world, becoming the one and only representative of Greek music abroad.

I totally agree that ignorance is one main reason. For example some people argue that if Ntalaras says that he gives some concerts without taking any money, this is not true. But how can anybody know if and how much money Ntalaras took and whats the point to know? He certainly has not any financial problems and he is certainly not the richest man in the world. I get upset when some people criticise Ntalaras in that way, while they are listening to Remos, Rokos, Sfakianakis, Alkeos, singers that have no idea about musik and they only care how to make their cd's profitable. Ntalaras is a musician and the criticism should be about his musik and nothing else.

Soc, I have the same question with you. Maybe I am influenced because people of my age dont like Ntalaras (I cant explain why). But I think it is a fact that you see more people who have a bad comment about Ntalaras than those who have a good comment. And what is disapointing is that usually the bad comment does not relate with Ntalaras music but with the person's imagination!

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And what is disapointing is that usually the bad comment does not relate with Ntalaras music but with the person's imagination!

Niko, exactly!!! :)  :)

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