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| Author |
Message |
| 20 new of 26 responses total. |
happyboy
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response 7 of 26:
| 
Aug 7 00:24 UTC 2001 |
i agree with *tradition* as well...
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orinoco
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response 8 of 26:
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Aug 7 15:45 UTC 2001 |
It helps confuse matters that there's more than one `folk music audience.'
I've taken to saying I listen to "folk dance tunes," because that's more or
less true: the music I like is the music of the folk dance community. But
there are other folk communities -- Dylan fans, coffee-shop folkies,
the `world music' crowd -- who I don't have much in common with at all.
So even for a circular definition it's pretty rickety, but it works.
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anderyn
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response 9 of 26:
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Aug 7 18:51 UTC 2001 |
It's very true that there are different audiences -- for the shows that I
attend, there's a different audience for the Tannahill Weavers than there is,
for, say, Chris Buhalis -- and a totally different audience again for one of
the Scandinavian bands that krj and I like (I'm thinking of the one with the
cow calling songs, Ken, but darn if I can recall the name....).
But one common thread among the fans/the artists seems to be that there's a
committment and a community that you don't see in other genres. I think I'll
try to expand on that later, however...
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dbratman
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response 10 of 26:
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Aug 7 18:55 UTC 2001 |
"Folk music" is best defined as a fuzzy set with a multivariate
definition. Come up with a set of characteristics that are typical of
the ideal pure "folk music as I point to it." For instance, it's
acoustic, it's of traditional authorship, it's marketed as folk music,
it's played by people who play what's generally agreed to be folk
music, etc. Anything with a certain number of these characteristics is
folk music; anything with markedly fewer isn't. For instance, not all
acoustic music (even all acoustic guitar-&-vocal music) is folk, not if
it lacks every other characteristic of folk music.
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raven
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response 11 of 26:
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Aug 9 15:22 UTC 2001 |
Hmm so where does my favorite singer Kriten Hersh fit in this definition.
She used to sing for the rock band throwing muses, but now plays mainly
acoustic music, that is well done musically i.e. 7th and 9th cjords fancy
finger picking, etc.
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krj
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response 12 of 26:
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Aug 9 16:30 UTC 2001 |
Hersh did one album all of traditional songs ("Murder, Misery and then
Goodnight," which I keep meaning to try to pick up -- it is, or was,
mail order only) but for the most part I have her compartmentalized
as "acoustic pop." This is based just on what I read about her,
though, I have not heard any of her work since Throwing Muses broke up.
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raven
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response 13 of 26:
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Aug 11 01:54 UTC 2001 |
Mail order and at her live shows. i have it and it's not my favorite of her
albums. The idea is good but she has her (11 year old?) son playing on many of
the tracks and while it does sound homey it also grates on my nerves. Best bet
for a K.H. newbie would be Hips and Makers (her first solo and my favorite) or
Strange Angels. Both of these albums are K.H. with acoustic guitar and
occasional cello back up. In my biased opinion they are gorgeous exercises in
richly harmonic finger picking, with very good (if obscure) lyrics. I also
like her new CD Sunny Border Blue which is electric and she plays all the
instruments, though it is not groundbreaking and sounds a lot like her Red
Heaven era Muses material.
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raven
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response 14 of 26:
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Aug 13 02:10 UTC 2001 |
Hmmm well check out some of the material from Hips & Makers before you
pigeonhole her as acoustic pop. I think she is far closer to say an Emmy
Lou Harris than a Fiona (blech) Apple.
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krj
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response 15 of 26:
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Aug 13 04:32 UTC 2001 |
What, Hersh has spent 25 years soaking herself in country music? :)
You seem to be regarding acoustic pop as some sort of curse:
pre-jazz Joni Mitchell, the Tansads, To Hell With Burgundy, possibly
the Indigo Girls, not a bad sort of company to be in.
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raven
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response 16 of 26:
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Aug 13 06:18 UTC 2001 |
Hmmm I guess you mean pop in the old 60s sense of populat music i.e.
the Beatles and Bob Dylan were classifed as pop. I guess when I think
of pop in it's modern usage my first thought is N'Synch and Mariah
Carey. Perhaps a new category is needed for acoustic non folk music?
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krj
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response 17 of 26:
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Aug 14 21:38 UTC 2001 |
"Pop," like "folk" and "classical," has a number of definitions. :)
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cmcgee
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response 18 of 26:
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Aug 19 01:11 UTC 2001 |
For those of you who would like to see a good movie about folk music, see "The
Songcatcher" currently at the Michigan Theater.
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krj
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response 19 of 26:
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Aug 19 04:23 UTC 2001 |
Ooops. "Songcatcher" left town after last Thursday, but it will be on
home video soon. Consumer advisory: the "soundtrack" album is mostly
"inspired" by the movie; it's the songs from the movie sung mostly
by big names who (except for Iris Dement and Emmy Rossum) don't appear
in the movie.
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jor
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response 20 of 26:
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Sep 8 13:40 UTC 2001 |
I just saw on allmusic.com, Roger Miller is
described as, among other things, "anti-folk".
That just cracked me up, that he would be
open about not paying reverent homage to the sacred
genre.
If we have a hard time defining it and see that there
are really an number of non-musical associations,
why do "we" feel eager to use the word anyway? Would it be
a crime to suggest that there is much better terminology
available for discussing music?
Anti-folk. Hmm. If I feel kind of militant about
it, can I get an acoustic guitar and sing in
a protest style? If I strum very sloppily?
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jor
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response 21 of 26:
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Sep 8 17:41 UTC 2001 |
http://www.accad.ohio-state.edu/~spencer/FF/F.html#folksong, definition
I knew I was getting in too deep
reading about Folk Nazis.
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anderyn
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response 22 of 26:
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Sep 8 23:26 UTC 2001 |
I've known about folk nazis since I read about the protests about Steeleye
Span ruining traditional British folk.
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eskarina
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response 23 of 26:
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Nov 19 05:15 UTC 2001 |
So now that we have no idea what "folk" means, what does "traditional" mean?
That Anonymous guy sure did write a lot of stuff...
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mcnally
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response 24 of 26:
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Nov 19 09:12 UTC 2001 |
I thought "Traditional" meant written by "Anonymous".. :-p
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tpryan
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response 25 of 26:
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Nov 19 19:20 UTC 2001 |
Considering that the guitar was somewhat new in Woody Guthrie's
time, does "Traditional" also relate to use of older instruments in
presenting the folk music?
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orinoco
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response 26 of 26:
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Nov 20 19:11 UTC 2001 |
Traditional tunes tend to be written by Anonymous. But "traditional
music" is sometimes written by one of Anonymous's better-named imitators.
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