The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #141147 Message #3251283
Posted By: GUEST,Jon
06-Nov-11 - 07:23 AM
Thread Name: 'Occupy English Folk Music!'
Subject: RE: 'Occupy English Folk Music!'
Tunes have long since left the constraints of folk definitioneering. Traditional melodies appear in all kinds of genres
Traditional melodies may well appear in all kinds of genres but there are undoubtedly English, Irish, etc. session tunes.
but that doesn't change the fact that folk songs have been problematised by the revival in a way that antiquates and abstracts them ordinary use.
Or was it problematised by singer songers demanding their interpretation be THE accepted definition?
Perhaps the way I see it with songs the problem (which seems to be much greater on the Internet than I've observed in the real world) is that there are two conflicting camps in terms of "what is folk" and some can not agree to disagree.
Anyway, the way I see it with tunes and in terms of the sessions I go to is that they are selective in terms of what is appropriate and I guess it does work more in the traditional type way? ie. a new tune either fits in with the session and gets played more or it it doesn't without any folk definitions or any arguments as to why a particular tune must be a folk tune and therefore must be played.