Metaxas imposed censorship on rebetiko

Metaxas imposed a censorship law, making the Rebetiko song illegal. By banning the rebetiko songs, the dictatorship regime wanted to avoid the documentation - through the lyrics of the songs - of the living conditions and the beliefs of the people living on society's margins. The Metaxas regime's policy directed Greece toward Europeanization, adopting a "calm" musical style, free from oriental influences. Many intellectuals of the time, such as Telos Agras, Zacharias Papantoniou, the musicologist Ioannis Psaroudas, the musician, music critic, and writer Sofia Spanoudi, etc., concurred in the decision. Zacharias Papantoniou wrote about the amane: "But the people who entrust this melody with the narrative of their passion are, as we say in Europe, outside of civilization." Sofia Spanoudi said: "they drag the art of sounds along the filthiest echelons of carnal musical pornography." Even the Communist Party, through Zachariadis, at its 6th assembly session (1934), renounced the rebetiko and its people as products of "Kama and Decantensia" (i.e., knife and decline) and invited its members to destroy the tekedes. The Metaxas regime banned all amanedes and rebetika that made references to hashish, drugs, and the rebetiko lifestyle in general. It adopted the light folk song of the time, which focused on women, love, and wine. Thus, the content of rebetiko gradually changed and focused on love and social issues.