BS: What if hard work doesn't pay off?

Subject: RE: BS: What if hard work doesn't pay off?
From: Amos
Date: 01 Feb 00 - 11:14 AM

Frank,

I relished your wise words and have trod a similar path, and suspect that many of us have. Thank you not only for keeping the faith, but for getting it well said, too!

A

Subject: RE: BS: What if hard work doesn't pay off?
From: Peter T.
Date: 01 Feb 00 - 01:37 PM

Helena Norbert-Hodge tells the story of the people of Ladakh (mountain country near Tibet) where she was an anthropologist in the 1950's. Everyone sang all the time, and while everyone recognised good singers, they knew that the good singers were bad yak herders, or whatever. Then the radio arrived: the distillation of excellent specialised singing from everywhere beamed at them. From that moment, bad singers and good singers alike became ashamed of how they sounded, and the best singers began to emulated the voices on the radio, and lost their originality. Group singing became a thing of the past, or something hidden away, or focussed on the one good singer doing a performance. The non-professionals had now become a permanent audience, and not just people who were better or worse singers than everyone else, but still singers.

No moral: just worth contemplating.
yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: What if hard work doesn't pay off?
From: JR
Date: 01 Feb 00 - 02:35 PM

Write your own songs, & NEVER put them on paper. That way every time you perform, your doing the song perfectly, & no one can disprove it.

Subject: RE: BS: What if hard work doesn't pay off?
From: GUEST,Frank Hamilton
Date: 01 Feb 00 - 10:31 PM

Thanks Amos. Shakepeare said something like this: "What's won is done, the joy lies in the doing."

What if hard work isn't fun any more? Then maybe it's time to look for something that is. I feel so lucky because playing and singing folk music has always been fun for me.

There is another thread here which I believe to be very important. Folk music belongs to everyone, I believe, and as a result, we are all entitled to participate in it, unlike pop music which has become a spectator sport. Peter T. brings up an essential point. This process has been called by one Vietnamese folklorist, "Musical Imperialism". The popular media-driven culture takes over the folk culture. Others have called this kind of thing "Fordism". (The attempt to homogenize all cultures into a uniformity that is manufactured. Henry Ford took a dim view of cultural diversity.

I've found that one of the beautiful things about this music is the potential for sharing it with others and receiving the benefits of other's music. To do this, I believe it's necessary to eschew the star system in this music. A folk star is an oxymoron in my view.

Off and on the subject, I believe that the copyright system has endangered the acceptance of the folk process by the general public but will continue in small pockets as sub-cultures always have done. If I can't change a song, then how can it become a folk song?

When we can't participate in the "process" then it it is no longer fun. I think that this is our entitlement, to be able to participate in the music of our country without being censured by copyright restrictions.

Solution offered: A special fund set aside to include folk music into a public domain that is fair use for all. Micheal Cooney and Pete Seeger have both suggested this.

All this sort of relates to the thread I think. Correct me please if I am wrong.

Frank