The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #88606   Message #1665164
Posted By: GUEST,DB
09-Feb-06 - 08:43 AM
Thread Name: BBC 2006 folk award results
Subject: RE: BBC 2006 folk award results
Well, I don't suppose that I should be at all surprised but, as someone who has been interested in folk music for four decades, I'm not impressed (as usual). Most of the winners I would regard as highly commercial artists who I usually go out of my way to avoid. This is partly because I'm a bit of a purist but also because these artists seem, to me at least, to be missing the point. I regard them as people who have agendas which have nothing to do with those aspects of folk music that I find most attractive.
Many of the winners are striving for a distinctive and commercial 'sound' that will sell recordings and ultimately they are using folk music as a platform to sell themselves. I prefer artists who want to communicate to me their passion for the music and have some understanding for where it came from and what meaning it may have had for previous generations. Folk music, and particularly folk song, is not just a collection of 'pretty' or trendy sounds it is a body of music laden with fascinating historical and cultural significance.