Still wondering what's folk these days?

Subject: RE: Still wondering what's folk these days?
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 15 Jul 23 - 06:08 PM

In certain contexts there is no folk and The Beatles were a vocal ensemble... not rock & roll.

The academic's taboo are still taboo behaviors (sorta, kinda.) The open discussion of said behaviors are now formal, written, mandatory environmental, social, corporate governance, diversity, equity and inclusiveness policy and procedural requirements in all Anglo-American arts and sciences. There are no exemptions for AI engineering.

In bot think, 20th century folk art's semi-monopoly on taboo discussion has been mainstreamed establishment shibboleth for most of this century.

Subject: RE: Still wondering what's folk these days?
From: GUEST,RJM
Date: 16 Jul 23 - 02:29 AM

they are like the stars on a summers evening they first appear and then they are gone

Subject: RE: Still wondering what's folk these days?
From: Lighter
Date: 16 Jul 23 - 09:14 AM

"Officially-sanctioned music that has to toe the official line."

I think that's limited to national anthems, religious hymns, and music in North Korea.

As I and others have said for years, "folk music" is a sometimes useful but extremely vague label. Except for scholarly use, I think the opinions of a robot in this case are as valid as anybody's.

Especially with the encouragement of music-industry marketing strategy in the sixties, people apply it to all sorts of things that academics do not. I find that annoying but gave up caring fifty years ago.

But I do believe this is the first time I've seen folk song defined mainly by *subject matter* rather than by origin, transmission, milieu, style, or all three.

Subject: RE: Still wondering what's folk these days?
From: meself
Date: 16 Jul 23 - 10:59 AM

To be fair to our bot friend, it did not claim that the subject-matter 'defines' folk; it merely said that the folk music "often tackles 'taboo' topics", which strikes me more as a relevant observation than as a defining feature.

Subject: RE: Still wondering what's folk these days?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 16 Jul 23 - 12:50 PM

Folk are the ones standing on two feet.

Subject: RE: Still wondering what's folk these days?
From: Lighter
Date: 16 Jul 23 - 02:15 PM

You're technically correct, but the question I asked him, er, it, was "How do you define folk music?"

And that was its complete answer. So its electronic brain searched the Web and settled on that.

Google Bard gave a far more complex reply.

Chatbot learns fast, though. Scarily fast. I just asked it the same question again, one day later, and got this:

"Folk music is a genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from it during the 20th-century folk revival. It is typically defined as music that originates in traditional popular culture or that is written in such a style. It is often passed down through families and other small social groups, and learned through hearing rather than reading. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Is there anything else you would like to know about folk music?"

Nothing about topics this time.

Much better, Bing!

Subject: RE: Still wondering what's folk these days?
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 16 Jul 23 - 03:22 PM

OCR misreads instrumental sheet music as dead air. No taboo = no folk. Turns out there was a lot more there with the audio hooked up.

Subject: RE: Still wondering what's folk these days?
From: GerryM
Date: 16 Jul 23 - 06:17 PM

"Folk are the ones standing on two feet."

So, my avian friends are folk?

Subject: RE: Still wondering what's folk these days?
From: GUEST,RJM
Date: 16 Jul 23 - 07:43 PM

"Folk are the ones standing on two feet."
So   Chimpanzees are Folk

Subject: RE: Still wondering what's folk these days?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 16 Jul 23 - 09:07 PM

well if your confused by whether chickens and apes are folk, I think I'd get that sorted out before bothering about folk music.

Subject: RE: Still wondering what's folk these days?
From: Lighter
Date: 17 Jul 23 - 09:14 AM

Colm O Lochlainn's Anglo-Irish version also has "Royal Artillery."

O Lochlainn, born in 1892, writes that he learned the song "in childhood."