Vangelis Papazoglou, prolific composer and lyricist and also pioneer in the genre of folk music, has emerged as an emblematic figure in Rebetiko before the introduction of the bouzouki. His music expressess the hardship of everyday life and deals with subjects such as poverty, love, and lawlessness. After the Asia Minor Catastrophe of 1922, Papazoglou flees to Greece and settles in Kokkinia, Athens. A few years later, Papazoglou steps into the recording music scene only to voluntarily withdraw soon after in 1937 as an act of resistance to the censorship of Metaxas regime and once again in 1941, as an act of defiance to the Nazis and the collaborators of the Nazi occupation.