Subject: RE: nouveau 'folk'
From: theleveller - PM
Date: 26 Aug 09 - 03:32 AM

"Whilst I don't disagree with much of what you say, Piers, we're back with the thorny question of 'what is folk music?'.' [...]"

I wouldn't expect anyone to agree with everything I say, just I don't agree with everything people say here. A lot of what we discuss here is a matter of taste and opinion, anyway.

I think "What is folk?" is another one of those unanswerable questions. A question one might have some chance of answering would be "What was folk music of Lower Bavaria between the years 1820 and 1850". Even then, preferences and opinions would probably play a part in the answer a given person might find to this question. That's part of what makes studying folklore interesting, from my point of view.

What I think is important with respect to folk music and what I play myself are two different kettles of fish. Not being qualified to be a representative of any particular tradition myself and being interested in lots of different kinds of music, I more-or-less automatically mix elements of different styles. Not that I try to do so consciously; I just play the way I play.

Except for the extreme case of the music of a society entirely isolated from other societies for centuries or millenia, there's really no such thing as a "pure" style. There can't be.