The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #111018   Message #2335349
Posted By: Joe_F
07-May-08 - 09:15 PM
Thread Name: Entertainment v Folk
Subject: RE: Entertainment v Folk
Obviously there is no conflict if "entertainment" is just the noun that goes with the verb "to entertain". You might entertain your guests by talking with them over dinner and singing with them after dessert.

But "entertainment" is also the name of a business. There is, of course, a (small) part of that business that consists in singing folk songs, and perhaps aspiring to write them, for money; and that cannot be said to conflict with folk, tho there is bound to be a certain amount of tension because of the mixture of motives.

But most people, when they think of the entertainment business, think of *mass* entertainment, that is, an industry in which the chief measure of success is the size of the audience. That is necessarily in conflict with folk, because it leads to large investments that have to be recouped, and throngs of parasites who have to be paid off, by maximizing sales. Since about 1940 it has laid claim, with ever increasing success, to a monopoly. It is incompatible, not only with folk, but with decency. I have some faint hope, however, that with the help of the Internet it can be beaten back.