Filk: A Very Subjective Overview
Aug. 4th, 2008 01:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pameladlloydOver in ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
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.
* 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.
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.
