Chastushka

Chastushka is a traditional musical genre of short Russian humorous folk song. Usually associated with high beat frequency, thus the name, coined from Russian: частый in the meaning of "quick". While the root of chastushki can be traced to ancient folklore of dance and wedding songs as well as performances of balagurs (Russian version of minstrels), the genre itself had crystallized fairly recently, in the last third of the 19th century, under the influence of social shifts caused by the abolition of serfdom and industrialization. Spread of the squeezebox in the mid-19th century and its use for the accompaniment created partial separation of chastushki from dance music.