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.
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regna
(no subject)
Date: 2008-08-07 01:55 am (UTC)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.