In the 1990s, when Yugoslavia descended into the depths of ethnic cleansing and war, it was the final act in a drama whose curtain had risen in the nineteenth century. In the mid to late 1800s, the countries under the control of the Austro Hungarian Empire in Eastern Europe and the Balkans began to agitate for independence.
Nationalist fervour and pride received an outlet in the arts across the region. Today we might not think of Opera or orchestral music as revolutionary, but in the highly charged atmosphere of those times, anything with the whiff of nationalism was seen as provocative. Opera's written in the language of the people with lead characters who were barbers for goodness sake, (Barber Of Seville), or whose plots centered around the nefarious activities of the nobility (The Marriage Of Figarro), were considered nigh on treasonous by the ruling class.
However, it was orchestral music where the nationalist flag was waved the most vigorously. Composers looked to the folk songs and dances of their people for their inspiration. Bela Bartok was probably the most famous for this, creating pieces with names like Romanian Folk Dances. The only problem with their choices of music was that in some cases it was actually the work of their age's version of the non-resident aliens, gypsies, or The Roma, not ethnic Hungarians or Romanians. 
Ranking below Lepers in social acceptance doesn't seem to have affected the popularity of Roma music. Bartok wasn't the only Eastern European composer who appropriated their music as a symbol of his country. Lesser known names to the West like Aram Khachaturian, Manuel de Falla and Isaac Albeniz all made use of various elements to emphasis their association with the "homeland".
Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later I suppose, but it has fallen to the Romanian Roma band, Taraf de Haidouks, to get a little of their own back. Their latest recording on the Crammed Discs label Maskarada (Masquerade) sees them putting their own indelible stamp to some of those "folk" compositions with breathtaking results.
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