Brass and folk 'under threat' news item

Subject: RE: Brass and folk 'under threat' news item
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 17 Jul 10 - 05:47 AM

Subject: RE: Brass and folk 'under threat' news item
From: EFDSS
Date: 16 Jul 10 - 11:33 AM

We saw this news story too - here's a response from us.

Young folk fans keep the music thriving

Research published by the University of London suggests that over the past 20 years, British teenagers have become increasingly exposed to restricted playlists on radio, tv and websites, leading them to listen only to their preferred genres of pop, rock and rap. They warn that this means brass bands and folk music could become a thing of the past.

However, the English Folk Dance and Song Society has found quite the opposite. In fact, evidence from festivals, ceilidhs, sessions and music classes up and down the country suggests that there are more young people engaging with folk music now than there have been for decades.

Research carried out for the Association of Festival Organisers found 45% of folk festival attendees are under 35, and 20% are 19 or under. 48% of festivals report a recent increase in the number of young attendees.

Joan Crump, Artistic Director of Sidmouth FolkWeek, says "Our young audiences are very robust - the audience for our most youth-specific venue, the Bulverton, is thriving and growing year on year, and our youth development work with Folk-a-Cola is oversubscribed. What's more, there are huge numbers of talented young musicians now performing, and they're not just interested in crossover music like Mumford and Sons or Laura Marling, but in getting back to where the music comes from - they want to learn from the source singers and musicians recorded before the 60s folk boom. I can understand the fear that folk music might disappear, but it seems to be striking a real chord at the moment, and the folk scene is healthier than it has been for decades."

Sam Lee, founder of the award-winning Magpie's Nest folk club, says " Young people are not just discovering new music through a mass media ever more sympathetic to alternative music but services like last.fm, Spotify, MySpace and podcasts are changing the landscape for musical discovery and genre surfing. As a folk club with a mostly young audience, The Magpie's Nest has a burgeoning pool of young folk talent to book from - young people are now turning more readily to folk and acoustic music, both as audience and performers, because they see it as being more welcoming to new musicians and characteristically removed from the fame-seeking attitude of rock and pop. Folk music is also rapidly evolving due to the diversity of listening its makers are growing up with."

Malcolm Taylor, Library Director of the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library at Cecil Sharp House, says "The past four or five years has seen the age profile of people using the library plummet. A new revival with a new generation are not only seeking out this wonderful music but are looking to the traditional sources of it to be inspired and informed - and then to evolve it. From Jim Moray, Paul Sartin, Tim van Eyken, Sam Lee, Jackie Oates and many others, looking out the collections of Grainger, Hammond, Mike Yates and of course Cecil Sharp, it's exciting and gratifying to be part of that."

However, the EFDSS does agree with the research finding that exposure to a variety of genres of music at a young age is crucial. Part of the Society's work includes running events for children and families, ideal for people who are new to folk music.

Subject: RE: Brass and folk 'under threat' news item
From: pavane
Date: 16 Jul 10 - 06:01 AM

You could always try the program!

Subject: RE: Brass and folk 'under threat' news item
From: Old Vermin
Date: 16 Jul 10 - 05:58 AM

Trantor Ltd - Like the dots on the website.

Subject: RE: Brass and folk 'under threat' news item
From: pavane
Date: 16 Jul 10 - 03:54 AM

My company is called Trantor Ltd....really

Subject: RE: Brass and folk 'under threat' news item
From: Tug the Cox
Date: 15 Jul 10 - 08:35 PM

Remember that story, was once a real Asimov freak, instead of going back to see Jesus, or the storming of the bastille, people were going to see where their spouses were five minutes ago!

Subject: RE: Brass and folk 'under threat' news item
From: pavane
Date: 15 Jul 10 - 11:32 AM

Actually ALL music is a thing of the past - Isaac Asimov once wrote a story where he points out how a 'time machine' to view the past would remove all privacy - you could see things which happened only a fraction of a second earlier.

Subject: RE: Brass and folk 'under threat' news item
From: greg stephens
Date: 15 Jul 10 - 11:28 AM

Folk music's a thing of the past anyway. But then it always will be.

Subject: RE: Brass and folk 'under threat' news item
From: Tug the Cox
Date: 15 Jul 10 - 11:28 AM

Typical silly season journalism...trying desparately to drag a story out of nothing.

Subject: RE: Brass and folk 'under threat' news item
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Jul 10 - 11:21 AM

Ditto to what Chris says.

The entire article is utter bollocks.

young people, unless they are introduced to a range of different musical traditions early when they are still open-eared, can refuse to engage with any music other than their preferred genre

Any evidence for this? Thought not.

"Still open-eared, my arse" as Jim Royle might have said.

Subject: RE: Brass and folk 'under threat' news item
From: Chris Partington
Date: 15 Jul 10 - 11:09 AM

I like this bit, even though I don't quite understand it:-

"Cave paintings from 33,000 BC show flutes being played," they said. "But that is no reason to be complacent."

Subject: RE: Brass and folk 'under threat' news item
From: Rob Naylor
Date: 15 Jul 10 - 09:59 AM

LESS music?

( I know what you're trying to say, I'm just being pathetically pedantic :-) )

Subject: RE: Brass and folk 'under threat' news item
From: pavane
Date: 15 Jul 10 - 09:43 AM

This is exactly why (here in the UK) we need the Licencing act modified to allow less formal music.

Subject: RE: Brass and folk 'under threat' news item
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 15 Jul 10 - 09:29 AM

I recently saw a quote in one of the papers that young people thought blues was just "old white guys singing the music of dead black guys" but I've been heartened in recent weeks by teen-and-twenty singers and musicians jamming at our local blues club... and jealous of their precocious talent. Also, at 66 and 3/4 I'm probably the oldest member of the audience (unlike when we go to the theatre or jazz gigs when I feel quite young).
Although the internet is a bit of a Pandora's Box, unlike the traditional broadcats media, which have marginalised "minority" music tastes (as opposed to the classical stuff the great and the good like and the pop stuff for the mass appeal)it does make obscure bands and genres available.
End of Rant.
RtS
(yes, old white guy still singing the music of dead black guys who are probably spinning in their graves if they could hear me)

Subject: Brass and folk 'under threat' news item
From: pavane
Date: 15 Jul 10 - 06:57 AM

Press association article link