The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #155357 Message #3655860
Posted By: Phil Edwards
01-Sep-14 - 12:19 PM
Thread Name: What makes a new song a folk song?
Subject: RE: What makes a new song a folk song?
PS I know the 1954 definition is a lost cause - nobody is going to stop shelving Laura Marling or the Mumfords under 'folk'. But I do think it would be interesting to hear another definition - really, any other definition, other than the purely ostensive definition which says that "folk" is "what people call folk". (Which is no definition at all. After all, "cats" are "what people call cats"; they're also definable as small furry quadrupeds distantly related to lions and tigers.)
James Yorkston has said on several occasions that his albums of original material aren't folk (because they're not traditional). When Graham Coxon made an acoustic album, the press called it 'folk'; he said not ("They're not 200 years old, any of these songs, are they?"). Are they wrong, and if so why?