Enya's music is damned beautiful at times. Not only that, but the spiritual feeling of it, often brings comfort to worried or troubled minds. Yet she's constantly ridiculed by those within the English folk world, as are many others.   Why????

You don't seem to get the point of some of the answers, Lizzie. Speaking for myself - not for anyone else, just myself - I don't care for that kind of music for a number of reasons. I don't care for the sentiment; I don't care for the style, which I find mushy and sententious; and I don't for the twee-Celtic dress in which it's clothed. There's no question of ridiculing her - she's welcome to flourish in her own field and good luck to her - but I personally don't find her music beautiful or spiritual; and if I was worried or troubled, I certainly wouldn't find solace in her music. Other things move me more - and I'm happy to provide some personal examples.

The main point of this thread was the "dreadful" nature of some of the faux-Celtic'y/folk-y stuff out there. Now, dreadful is a subjective word and beauty is in the eye, etc., but we as individuals have to make judgments and be subjective - otherwise how could we compare anything with anything? And we have to have some personal standards, otherwise we'd like everything and nothing. To say that I don't like Enya is simply to say that I don't like Enya or, as it happens, anything else in that line. But - and please note this - just because I don't happen to care for that stuff doesn't mean that I'm a hard-hearted old curmudgeon who goes "bah! humbug!" at the world, or that I'm lacking in any spirituality. I just get my enlightenment elsewhere, and I find beauty in many other musical and artistic forms.

Just because we're not white doesn't mean we're black - the world is more subtle than that.