Filk: A Very Subjective Overview

[pameladlloyd]

Over in asakiyume's journal, the topic of filk came up. I started explaining what filk is, from my perspective, then realized this was a big enough topic to deserve a post of it's own. She encouraged me, too, suggesting that things said in comments often go unread. I'm going to repeat my first paragraph from those comments, so my apologies to those of you who do read comments and have friended us both. To make this a little easier on folks, I've also tucked some of this under a cut.

I generally describe filk music as the folk music of science fiction and fantasy fans. To the best of my knowledge, it arose from that tradition* and much of the music has the cadence of folk. But, it's really a very diverse category, much more related to the topic of the songs, rather than to the origin of the music genre. A lot of the songs are parodies and use old folk tunes or contemporary songs as the melody base; there are some people who so equate this type of song with filk that they insist that this category defines filk. However, there are also a lot of people who are creating new filk songs in a variety of different musical styles.

I just googled "Tom Smith filk," as he's kinda the king of the parody school of filk and discovered that he's on LJ: filkertom. Jordin Kare is another of this ilk and even rates a Wikipedia article. I'll bet Tom Smith has one, too. *checks* Yup, there it is, second on the google results.

These guys can be a lot of fun, but it's really all about being in on the joke, more than about the music, I think. *g*

Mercedes Lackey has done several CDs worth of original songs (both lyrics and musical score), many of them related to her books, some of them related to other people's books, and some tell new stories in their own right I believe. She often worked with Leslie Fish, and Heather Alexander did magnificent vocals for some of these. Her music is available at Firebird Arts.

Darn it! There are just so many artists out there. I'm going to list a few of the ones I know about, although I'm sure there are many more. I'm happy to answer questions to the extent that I'm able, although I'm really just a casual filker and there are many people out there far better qualified than I for that task.

• The Duras Sisters (A capella; mostly inspired by movies or TV.)


• Tom Tuerff (He's been featured on the Dr. Demento radio show. If you're Catholic, or just have a lot of friends or family who are Catholic, you should definitely search out Tom's song, "Catholic Guilt.")


• Nancy Louise Freeman (Blues and Country Western, although not in the same song, so far as I know.)
  
• Dr. Jane Robinson (I can only find lyrics and miscellany, no home page or songs. I have her CD "Dr. Jane's REMAINS" which has a bunch of songs related to dinosaurs.


• Leslie Fish (One of the stars of filk, she writes strong lyrics. She has a deep, gravelly voice and often sings songs from a male perspecitive. She's done a lot of work with Mercedes Lackey.)


• Joe Bethancourt (Has done some filk, but now positions himself as "Arizona's Premier Acoustic Musician.")


• Tri-Destiny (A tri of pop singers; they'd never heard of filk until fandom discovered their music, which is often inspired by literary works, as well as media. Their Mr. Spock is hilarious.


• Jeff and Maya Bohnhoff (I couldn't open their homepage, but I did find a Wikipedia article about Maya. Their music is mostly parodies, using classic rock as the musical basis. My husband complains that they completely destroy the Eagles. *g*)


• Cynthia McQuillin (One of the few on this list for which I don't own at least one tape or CD, although I like what I've heard of her work.)

* There's a great old apocryphal story about a typo in the programming schedule at one of the early cons, in which a folk music gathering was described using the work filk, thus originating the term, but there doesn't seem to be complete agreement about that.

Comments

[satimaflavell.livejournal.com]

It sounds as though filk is really big in the States, Pema. We don't seem to hear much of it here in Oz any more, which is a shame. Thanks for the link list - I'll check 'em out!

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

You're welcome.

I have no idea how big filk is in the overall scheme of things over here, but most years there is a group of filkers that gather at our local con. I actually used to be more active; I used to join in the filks and at least listen, even if I wasn't always comfortable singing. And a couple of times I hosted filk parties at my house, since a year between get-togethers seemed too long. But, the last few years I've somehow missed the action at the con, so I've been satisfying myself with CDs, which are usually available in the dealer's room.

[madfilkentist]

Many filkers, including me, consider Lee Gold's history to be an accurate account of the origin of the term.

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

Welcome and thank you. That is certainly the most detailed accounting I've ever read about the origins of filk and I really enjoyed reading it. Lee Gold clearly did a lot of research on the subject, to the point that I almost felt I was reading a folklorist's treatise about filk. (If there are no folklorists studying filk and/or sf-fandom, they are missing a really dynamic segment of society, I think.)

I was curious to learn more about her and discovered a sketchy Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Gold)* that mentions that "[s]he is considered an expert on the application of folklore to real-world based RPG settings, particularly Japan." Do you know if she is self-taught in folkloristics, or if she's trained in the field?

I also found the XENOFILKIA HOME PAGE (http://places.to/xeno/xeno.html), which appears to be mostly (if not entirely) the work of Lee and her husband, Barry. She includes a brief definition of filk there that I'm pleased to think doesn' differ too much from my own.

Once again, thank you for joining in the conversation and for providing the link.

* How cool is it, that filkers rate Wikipedia articles? I love the absolute breadth of Wikipedia and its coverage of subjects that would never be included in a traditional encyclopedia.

[madfilkentist]

I really don't know anything about Lee's formal education -- just that she thinks before she writes and is very good about not passing on poorly vetted information. She's known Karen Anderson for a long time, and she's one of the mainstays of filk fandom.

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

Works for me. There are certainly plenty of autodidacts who do as well or better at communicating about their subject of passion than those for whom the subject is just a job or something they learned in school.

[madfilkentist]

The link you found to the Xenofilkia home page is actually a mirror or alias. The main home page is here. Steve Savitzky provides hosting and technical support for it.

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this :-)

It's interesting to see that the defining characteristics have to do with topic and treatment--I love how taxonomies work, and the definition of filk is a different sort of definition from, say, the definition of bluegrass... and yet other musical genres (gospel, for example) seem to be at least in part defined by subject matter as well as musical style.**

Fascinating!

**and really I don't know what I'm talking about... I'm struggling for words to express myself.

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

It's interesting to see that the defining characteristics have to do with topic and treatment--I love how taxonomies work, and the definition of filk is a different sort of definition from, say, the definition of bluegrass... and yet other musical genres (gospel, for example) seem to be at least in part defined by subject matter as well as musical style.**

I agree. I definitely see much of filk music, especially the songs that draw on existing tunes, as a subset of folk music. I was amused during some of my internet searches to come across a mention by a filker about printing lyrics to early filksongs so that other filkers would have a reference to the "right" words, even though the songs they were mentioning were of that folky, re-write the lyrics, type, so that new changes by other filkers were, in my opinion, part of that whole folk process. (Which doesn't mean I don't appreciate those song books, when I come across them. I just don't see the songs as necessarily being set in stone.)

Just as the people who came to our country brought music with them from their homes, then changed the lyrics to fit what they knew here, filkers are taking old or popular songs, songs they already know, and coming up with lyrics that work for them and address their concerns and interests and dreams. New stories for new times, old stories retold because they ring true, but everything alive and growing and changing.

But, at the same time, we live in a society that likes to pin things down: there's a right way, and a wrong way; this is that, or it's not that. We come up with categories and try to fit everything into them. Even though we know that there are plenty of things that are two things at once, or sometimes one and sometimes another, or that just never fit quite neatly into the boxes we've got.

Plus, in addition to the songs that have a direct connection to old folk songs, there's another kind of filk music that's original and experimental. Sometimes it's poetry set to music, as when Yeats' poem "Stolen Child" is set to music. (And I count that as filk, even though not all of the artists who've done it are part of the filk tradition or even aware of filk.) Sometimes it's an original song about magic, or space, or computers. I think filk, like speculative fiction, is an attempt to address and deal with our contemporary issues, and with all the baggage that modern life has saddled us with.

**and really I don't know what I'm talking about... I'm struggling for words to express myself.

Like all of us, really. Or, since I can't speak for anyone else, like me, at least. *g*

I appreciate what you've had to say. You think about things, and you make me think. We see things and observe and form opinions. Sometimes we're right, sometimes we're wrong, sometimes we're both, or in some gray place inbetween. It's all good, because it's part of growing and being and learning and sharing.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

there are plenty of things that are two things at once, or sometimes one and sometimes another

That's such an important thing to remember...

And I agree about it being all good :-)

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

:-)