This chapter, written by a freelance journalist and recent Ph.D. in Anthropology (National School of Political Science and Public Administration, Bucharest) who is a passionate devotee of manele, treats the dynamism as well as brutal and expressive authenticity of the genre. The analysis benefits from the author’s infiltration of the normally impenetrable universe of those who produce and diffuse manele thus permitting him to decipher the veiled relationships between manelişti and those who exploit the economic situation of present-day Romania--the underworld and nouveau-riches. The chapter combines anthropological research and theory with interpretive methods of journalism.