Folklore: What Is Folk?

Subject: RE: Folklore: What Is Folk?
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 01 Feb 23 - 04:55 PM

What I find most interesting, Steve, is why so many people on Mudcat - and so few anywhere else - tie themselves into knots trying to fit music they love into a highly abstract category they call "folk."

Subject: RE: Folklore: What Is Folk?
From: GUEST,CJS
Date: 01 Feb 23 - 04:58 PM

I was attracted to the music for several reasons.
Good Storylines, good tunes, an aura of anti establishment, circa 1966, a left wing political connection,
Ironically this has largely disappeared, perhaps this is the fault of the way the UK folk revival has been led over the last 30 years, where there has been a preoccupation with making the music more commercial.

Subject: RE: Folklore: What Is Folk?
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 01 Feb 23 - 05:32 PM

...or it could be that the 'people' are just not very intelligent- maybe a good argument, they did vote for Brexit....

Intelligent folk only? Think of the children! Oh the humanity!

Subject: RE: Folklore: What Is Folk?
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 02 Feb 23 - 11:13 AM

Some of the most intelligent people on the planet are just as easily manipulated, sometimes even the people doing most of the manipulating.

Spot on, Jon.

CJ, at grassroots level, all of that you describe is still there, at least in my neck of the woods. Admittedly a lot of those anti-establishment twenty-somethings have now joined the middle class and have moved their folk clubs into the leafy suburbs, but there are still plenty of us left on the left.

Subject: RE: Folklore: What Is Folk?
From: StephenH
Date: 02 Feb 23 - 02:35 PM

I have managed to make my peace with the way people fling the term "folk" around. If pressed for my definition I would say something very close to the 54 description but, if asked to describe a particular group's music, I would use the term "folk" or some variant simply to
give people an idea of what to expect.
Similarly, again if pressed, I have a pretty definite idea of what I think constitutes a sea chantey but mostly keep quiet about it unless
involved in a serious discussion about the form.
I always enjoy the discussions on Mudcat about this, not in search of a final definition, but because there are so many thoughtful responses to the question from people whose opinions I have come to value through
reading their posts on a variety of topics.

Subject: RE: Folklore: What Is Folk?
From: GUEST,Nick Dow
Date: 02 Feb 23 - 06:19 PM

Excellent! I was waiting for somebody to suggest the informal definition. It has worked for two or three generations of singers, and it beats Tweedle dum and Tweedle dee beating each other over the head with their conference papers. Here's to an informal subjectivity. I wish more people would accept that there is no burden of proof upon the singer, folklorist or writer. Chuck Berry was asked did he play 'Black music or Blues. He answered by saying he hadn't a clue what colour his music was. The simplest answers are often the best.