The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #30782   Message #4164156
Posted By: Steve Gardham
01-Feb-23 - 04:17 PM
Thread Name: Folklore: What Is Folk?
Subject: RE: Folklore: What Is Folk?
Interesting comparison there, Jim, with Brexit, and why the turkeys voted for it. I see on social media a lot of useful takes on the way the masses are manipulated on both sides of the pond, stuff like distractions by the powerful, and divide and conquer ploys by the media. I do see mass entertainment as having similar effects and probably part of the same propaganda. Mass entertainment is so ingrained in Western society now that any self-made music is seen as largely irrelevant or to be scorned.

This obsession with definitions is a waste of time. The 54 descriptors are fine when categorising songs from oral tradition but useless in trying to make sense of what comes under the folk umbrella in the modern world. This is a very complex issue and open to a wide range of opinions.