The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #116775 Message #2515122
Posted By: Phil Edwards
14-Dec-08 - 03:01 PM
Thread Name: 2008 R2 Young Folk Award - What Happened
Subject: RE: 2008 R2 Young Folk Award - What Happened
Narrow mindedness and bigoted attitudes will surely lead the way to the extinction of the very music we love.
Obviously(?) I'm not advocating narrow-mindedness and bigotry, but I really think it's a problem when music which has no attributes unique to folk music - nothing to say that it's folk music and not some other kind of music - is accepted as being folk music, let alone hailed as a particularly excellent example of folk music. That way, surely, lies the end of 'folk' as anything other than an optional label for certain styles of pop music.
But no, we shouldn't be beastly to the Henwoods*: the problem's not with them, or even with the judges on the night who rated them highest. The problem's "folk" being used as shorthand for "folk and" ("and acoustic" in this case).
*Feels weird typing the name: one of my best friends at school was a Henwood. Wonder if they're related?