I've noticed that some of the bands or solo artists whose songs are played on Triple-J have been referred to as "folk", e.g. Fleet Foxes, and I was also surprised to hear the radio station promoting the Woodford Folk Festival recently. Guest, Joseph de Culver City, you may be onto something.

I personally have become heartily sick of the talking style of music, with no melody to speak of, and all of the pieces sound the same. (Someone de-confuse me please - is this Rap, or sometimes seriously referred to as Rap "Music"?)

It used to be that the rappers had music included in their "song" but in the last few years the music began to get scarcer & scarcer, and I'm wondering if there has been a backlash from that trend. Some of those type of "songs" have worked with singers who sing a sort of counterpoint to the rapping. Almost all of the songs I heard in Triple-J's Hottest 100 this year were dinky-di melodious songs. I didn't necessarily like the melodies of all of them, but they were melodies nonetheless.

Another thing I have been thinking about, re Mumford & Sons, is that the repetitive rhythms of the banjo could almost be compared with the electronically produced repetitive rhythms which a lot of bands use now, so maybe the hand-held, string-based, rhythm-production tool (i.e. the banjo) may even have a chance of competing with electronica. I'll be interested to see whether the banjo begins to take off in popular music. (I'm not casting nasturtiums on either banjos or electronic music here. It might be worth noting that my favourite (popular genre) CD is by Leftfield, an electro-percussion duo. Brilliant!)

Just a few thoughts I've been mulling over, in relation to this thread.

Helen