Indeed, in the latter decades, all Romanian fiddlers? music has been under the constant and aggressive pressure of some South-Eastern European influences. I leave out the genres that have always been tributary to the Balkans (such as the love songs in Wallachia and Oltenia, and the mahala music of Bucharest), since a thorough investigation of their different and at the same time more complicated situation would lead to a too lengthy digression. I will only refer to that musical category that includes the famous ?manele?, much reviled of late, as destroyers of national specificity.

            The Southern influences became fully present in Romania towards the end of the ?60s, in the so-called ?music of Banat?. It came into being in the Western parts of the country, where the Romanian and Serb lăutari often crossed the border (10) back and forth in order to play at their neighbors? weddings, and so did not miss the chance of performing a profitable exchange of trendy styles and melodies. The music of Banat, which soon came to be called Serb music, was not actually the music of the Serb peasants, but a very popular pan-Yugoslav sort of music, circulated and partly even invented out of political reasons by the groups in multiethnic Yugoslavia. (11) As soon as it became known, the ?Serb music? was hugely successful. It swiftly permeated and at times even pulverized the fiddlers? music of Oltenia, Wallachia, and then made a less spectacular impact on the music of Transylvania. Nevertheless, the Serb (i.e. pan-Yugoslavian) music was lent slightly different shades by the particularities of the local style. (For instance, the Serb music of Moldavia was different from that of southern Wallachia.) It took it about 15 years ? during which it came to be known as Gypsy music (because it did not really sounded like the Serbs? music, and also because the people did not really know who they should attribute it to (12)) ? to reach even Maramureş, Oaş and Bucovina, i.e. the so-called unbreakable fortresses of the Romanian rural traditional spirit. The new music was played ?live? at big-time parties and during the ?slack? intervals of nuptial ceremonies, but, above all, people listened to top-volume recordings of it, wherever they felt like: on the porch, inside the house, on the balcony, on the street, in pubs, parks, trains, and autobuses. Average people loved it dearly, yet declined full-fledged identification with it, as a suggestion that they did not consider themselves either its unique creators or benefactors. They looked around and tried to set it down to ?others?: in Romania, the music was said to be Serb; in Serbia and Bulgaria, it was said to be Romanian or Turkish (function of its apparent stylistic dominant) etc. We too experienced, therefore, the advent of a composite sort of music, which melted into a globalizing pot the musical variants of the ethnic groups in a relatively large geo-cultural area. (Fenomenul apariţiei unei muzici compozite, care topeşte într-o retortă globalizantă muzicile grupurilor etnice dintr-o arie geo-culturală relativ extinsă, se produce prin urmare şi în jurul nostru. De tradus mai aproape de varianta rom.)

 In all socialist countries ? Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia, Albania ? music was not to the liking of the authorities, because uncontrollable and likely to undermine the sacrosanct national specificity in a serious way.

            In the Romania of the ?80s, this mixed music was the object of an incredibly virulent media campaign of  ?folklore de-pollution (era chiar termenul folosit de autoritati. Poate fi preluat??)?, initiated by the party bodies and promoted by the intellectuals subservient to the regime. The players lived under threat of brutal administrative penalties. The music, though, stubbornly fought back. Improvised, energetic, lively, vulgar, healthily anchored on to the realities of the present (particularly due to the prosaic texts in verse it combined with), rejecting the cliches of folklorism and defying the commandments of official nationalist ideology, it grew as an expression of the simple people?s need of freedom, and at the same time as an attempt of regional musical globalization. (13)