Chalga is a “copy” of turbo-folk, which originated in Serbia. It combines euro-pop elements with heavy influence from Turkish and middle eastern music in its rhythm.

Now don’t get me wrong - it is usually distinct from Arabic/Turkish music to a trained ear but to a foreigner it all sounds like bongo-bongo slop (which it is). Heavy, heavy oriental influence from everything including vocals, instruments, music videos…

Euro-pop is trashy enough but combine with Arab-pop and you get…well, chalga.

That’s why it’s controversial. It disgraces city folk because the music is village sounding, and it preys on surface level superficialities, like some rap in America. People like it because it’s hype and they can drink to it, and people don’t like it because it effectively disgraces 1,500 years of traditional music.