The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #146595   Message #3755207
Posted By: GUEST,Anne Neilson
02-Dec-15 - 03:57 PM
Thread Name: Can a pop song become traditional?
Subject: RE: Can a pop song become traditional?
Re. Allan Conn's post anent the Scots Traditional Music Awards -- I'm fairly certain that the contemporary music which is being recognised is instrumental, but composed by musicians who are usually steeped in traditional styles.

Singers who might be rewarded on the night will probably be singing a majority of traditional songs (or perhaps modern songs in a traditional way), but I can't think of any performer who would be offering 'a pop song' for consideration.

So, again going back to the original question, my answer would still be NO. (As a child of the 60s, there are many of the pop songs of that era that I can only sing along with an approximation of the big guitar riff -- which suggests that it exists as a 'complete' entity and implies that any deviation is unimaginable, so the folk process is on a hiding to nothing.)

But, by the same token, I have absolutely no difficulty in imagining that a vast number of the tunes recently composed -- in march, strathspey, jig or reel time -- by musicians such as Willie Hunter, Ian Hardie, Phil Cunningham, Aly Bain et al will eventually (and more likely sooner rather than later) be taken in to the tradition.