Firstly, let me point out that the rather lofty title of this piece is somewhat tongue in cheek. Though I hope to make some semi-serious points over the next thousand or so words the subject matter (which I myself freely chose) is largely derisible since music made ‘by people, for people’ is surely all music, maybe one day even music from distant interstellar outposts will also fall within the genre so it’s a very, very large gene pool. But the categorizing of species or in this case ‘genres’ helps. It helps us identify and navigate our way in and out of different seams of music, it helps those of us within the folk industry to better engage new audiences and it helps to programme and present new work to anyone currently without the folk bubble.
As a platform via which such wider audiences form personal opinions as to the nature of folk, I would say that music festivals are a major asset. Festival directors are year by year becoming the new gatekeepers of folk’s public wider perception whilst market forces also demand they look beyond any immediate folk contingent base to boost ticket sales. They are faced with the rather daunting task of carrying through the remaining threads of the folk revival whilst ensuring it finds new audiences and online supporters. They are also exposed to the genres ever-changing eco-system on an annual cycle as a wide variety of music clamours for their support and help. As a result, in today’s market, folk music can be Frank Turner just as effectively as it can be Frank Kidson.
Access to folk music and folk musicians is perhaps the most egalitarian of all genres. From local pub sessions to folk clubs, open stages to online there are many ways for young musicians to reach out and gain support from a music scene that is most always nurturing and inclusive. This teaches from the outset that the most important tool in any folk musician’s soft case is their ability to connect with people, and then as an extension to this in a professional setting, to audiences.
Successful professional acts remain focused on their audience in the same way that folk musicians worked to fill gaps with their own local communities, by providing social commentary or music people could dance to for example. Whilst musicians and the institutions that support us (festivals, BBC folk awards and academic stakeholders) shape and hone our repertoire it’s overall generality is and has always been decided by the people who listen and respond to it. From polyrhythms descended across African savannas to popular songs from the last century the longevity and survival of any artistic statement will be gifted by those who continue to support it over time. The process in play here is one that could be described as ‘memetic.’ Consider social media memes with particular virality that evolve and spread via online supporters across continents as different cultures adapt them depending on their own needs. A popular folk song is nothing if not a ‘Wild Rover’ in this sense.
But if all music is folk music – memetic whereby ideas survive, owing…well to their popularity and anything that does not connect for whatever reason simply disappears, just as some river tributaries die out – then should folk musicians see themselves as vanguards of all music, of the original source? Of course not, because folk music is valuable whilst not being precious. An unlimited source of creative inspiration and lessons learned for us by countless generations that does not burden us with musical laws or doctrines. African folk music was a parent to Jazz and Blues, Irish and Scottish folk helped raise country music and bluegrass but what successful parent claims ownership over an independent child. The odd birthday card perhaps by way of recognition is nice but a mum or dad who constantly tells anyone who’ll listen about the vital role they have played ultimately limits growth in all directions.
So folk music is a benign force, as are folk musicians. Their reach and influence upon all music is primary and vast but such status should be afforded to those who are prepared at the same time to lay no claim upon it. However, for any readers currently feeling even more confused or at a loss for the next time music they suspect could be folk is played at a dinner party here are a few helpful indicators to check your inexperience against.
- Do the tunes sound similar?
- Are the songs about a people and places?
- If a live performance, does it include long rambling verbal introductions?
- Are there regional accents involved?
- Are the instruments acoustic?
- Is it easier to sing along using diddles as opposed to laaahs and ooohs?
- Is the music owned by nice people?
Apologies if this seems glib but in a bewildering constellation of folk artists lit up by the likes of Billy Bragg and Bobby Casey this approach may be as useful as any. Further to this there may actually be only two useful categories for the overwhelming majority of folk who will steer the course and development of ‘folk music’ in future so that in turn it can influence everything else.
- Stuff I like
- Stuff I don’t like
Leave definitions and categorizations to those of us that are required to fit music within an existing marketplace and let your ears dictate your own direction of travel. I will however say this to finish….
In July I met my mum and some old music friends in a public house for tunes. Not a paid gig, just for the sake of pure enjoyment and to see each other. An ex-pupil of mine, a harpist who went on to study composition at York University had also come along following a rehearsal we’d had for my gig at Towersey Festival. One of the musicians whom I “know through the music” having played together since my own teens, whose daughter is now at university and also a harpist also joined us. As we exchanged and shared tunes some of which we’d collectively known for over a quarter of a century and others only just learned from younger musicians that we ourselves had either taught or given birth to, I felt an acute sense of well-being and contentment, of the part we all play in life’s continuum. Generations pass on much more than music down through time but if you’re lucky, as a folk musician you might occasionally catch a glimpse of this majestic yet largely imperceptible project, one that threads lifetimes together and which the best music has always served most faithfully of all.
Luke Daniels
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