Folk music of science fiction fandom
Filk music
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Stylistic origins
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Cultural origins
| United States
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|
Nerd-folk
|
Filk music
is a musical culture, genre, and community tied to
science fiction, fantasy, and horror fandom
and a type of
fan labor
. The genre has existed since the early 1950s and been played primarily since the mid-1970s. The genre has a niche but faithful popularity in the
underground
.
[1]
Etymology and definitions
[
edit
]
The term "filk" (originally a
typographical error
) predates 1955.
[2]
(See also
below
.)
Interfilk, a charity registered in California to "[promote] cultural exchange through filk music",
[3]
offered multiple sources of definitions, without summary, for filk music
c.
2002
? c.
2012
,
[4]
but since relies almost entirely on an article by
Jordin Kare
titled "Filk Music", originally published by
Sing Out!
magazine, for their definition. Kare quotes Nick Smith of the Los Angeles Filkharmonics as stating:
[5]
It is a mixture of song parodies and original music, humorous and serious, about subjects like science fiction, fantasy, computers, cats, politics, the space program, books, movies, TV shows, love, war, death...
and summarizes that "almost anything goes at a filksing".
[5]
Filk has been defined as what is sung or performed by the network of people who originally gathered to sing at
science fiction or fantasy conventions
.
[6]
Another definition focuses on filking as a community of those who are interested in filk music and who form part of the social network self-identified with filking. As described later in this article, the origins of filk in science fiction conventions and its current organization emphasizes the social-network aspect of filking. The social aspect of filk as contrasted with the "performer vs. audience" dichotomy of much of modern music was described in a speech by
ethnomusicologist
Sally Childs-Helton
.
[7]
Styles and subjects
[
edit
]
The range of topics in filk songs stems from its cultural roots in fandom. Many songs honor specific works in science fiction, fantasy, or
speculative fiction
. Other songs are about science, fantasy,
computers
, technology in general, or values related to technological change.
[8]
A significant number of filk songs are
parodies
, whether in the original sense of simply re-using a tune or in the modern sense of specifically humorous re-use.
[9]
One subtype of filk songs is the "ose" song, one on themes of death and gloom. The term derives from the word "morose", as in "ose, morose, even-more-ose".
[10]
History
[
edit
]
In the early 1950s, the term
filk music
started as a misspelling of
folk music
in an essay by Lee Jacobs, "The Influence of Science Fiction on Modern American Filk Music". Wrai Ballard, then editor of the Spectator
Amateur Press Society
refused to publish it for fear that the article's bawdy content could get them into trouble with the
Post Office
under the
Comstock Laws
, but found the typo itself amusing, and mentioned it repeatedly;
[11]
thus, Jacobs' typo became the self-identified term for the genre/subculture while it was still an informal, unrecognized activity at conventions. Its first documented deliberate use was by
Karen Anderson
in
Die Zeitschrift fur vollstandigen Unsinn
(
The Journal for Utter Nonsense
) No. 774 (June 1953), for a song written by her husband
Poul Anderson
.
[12]
At the 1974
World Science Fiction Convention
author
Bob Asprin
announced publicly the creation of a group of volunteers he dubbed the Dorsai Irregulars, and a singing session ensued later that night.
[13]
In the 1970s and 1980s, filking slowly became established as an acknowledged activity at science fiction conventions. Some convention organizers allotted hotel function space late at night for filkers, or filking occurred in hallways, bars or any other place that the filkers could find. Some convention organizers in the 1980s began inviting guests specifically for their filking. Some specialized conventions focused entirely on filk, beginning with FilkCon in Chicago in 1979, organized by Margaret Middleton and Curt Clemmer, later joined by BayFilk in Northern California; the
Ohio Valley Filk Fest
(OVFF) in Columbus, Ohio; ConChord in Los Angeles and in San Diego,
[14]
California; GAFilk in Atlanta, Georgia;
[15]
Musicon in
Nashville, Tennessee
;
FilKONtario
near
Toronto
, Ontario; a rotating British filkcon, and one (NEFilk) in the northeastern US;
[16]
and the German FilkCONtinental.
[17]
Filk circles
[
edit
]
Physical layout
[
edit
]
As the name implies, a rough circle of chairs is usually formed.
[9]
Traditionally, filk circles are started in the evening and tend to continue very late into the night.
[9]
Musical instruments
[
edit
]
A wide range of instruments can be found in a filk circle, although the most common is the
acoustic guitar
.
[9]
Acoustic instruments are more common than electric instruments, although portable
keyboards
and even
theremins
are not unheard of.
[18]
Types
[
edit
]
Filk circles are often given an organizational structure to make it easier for participants to know when it is time to perform or time to listen to other performers. There are many ways to accomplish this, but the most common types of filk circle are listed below.
[19]
Bardic
[
edit
]
The advantage of the bardic circle is that it has a clear structure, which enforces politeness. It ensures everyone in the circle gets their turn so that even shy people can have a chance to request or perform. There are disadvantages, however. A bardic circle with large numbers of participants will take a long time to traverse the entire circle, making people wait too long for their turn. Such a circle was lamented in a filk by
Suzette Haden Elgin
: "I've been here with my song at the ready since day before yesterday night."
[20]
Chaos
[
edit
]
In a chaos circle, there is no sequential organization. Any performer can simply begin playing a song after the prior song is finished, or any participant can shout out a request. Care must be taken to prevent two songs from starting at the same time. Frequently the word "follower!" is shouted in a chaos circle, meaning that a performer believes they have the perfect song to follow the prior song, and they want to play it now.
[21]
The chaos circle's advantage is its spontaneity and energy. "Runs" of songs will frequently get started, with each new song intended to make some sort of connection to or commentary on the prior song's topic. The disadvantage is that it takes concentration and effort to be polite and respectful in a chaos circle: It is easy to accidentally interrupt another performer who's trying to start up a song of their own, especially in a very large circle where one might not be able to easily hear the other performer on the opposite side of the room. Chaos circles thus have a reputation of favoring bold, loud performers who can command attention. One countermeasure to such conflicts is for someone, generally not one of the current/starting-up performers, to shout "Filker up!", possibly pointing to the one being interrupted. This alerts the room, and specifically the (usually unintentional) interrupter, to be quiet and pay attention to the filker who has started performing.
[22]
Token bardic
[
edit
]
A token bardic circle, also known as a "poker-chip" bardic circle, attempts to combine the enforced politeness of the bardic circle with the freeform nature of the chaos circle. A container full of some type of token such as poker chips is supplied for the circle. Each person participating in the circle is given a fixed number of tokens when they enter the room (frequently two tokens) and can throw a token into the center of the circle at any time to claim a pick or play turn. When all the active tokens in the circle are used up, they are scooped up and redistributed for the next round.
[21]
Etiquette
[
edit
]
The etiquette of the filk circle begins with a respect for all music, including (and perhaps especially) amateur music and amateur performers. Everyone is encouraged to perform, regardless of their skill level. No one is criticized except to occasionally give tips or suggestions.
[19]
Cultural perspective
[
edit
]
At a deep level, the folk culture of filk validates creative arts in the midst of an explicitly technological culture. When accepting induction into the Filk Hall of Fame in 2003, ethnomusicologist Sally Childs-Helton said, "We have taken our right to be creative and to literally 'play' in the best sense of that word." Filk combines folk roots, live music circles, and dominant acoustical instrumentation, on the one hand, with high-tech cultural maintenance, on the other hand?a dense network of filkers' web pages, recordings, sound reinforcement at filk conventions, e-mail lists, and so on. The eclectic content of filk frequently contains that assertion of human creativity, especially in connection with technology. (See for example
Leslie Fish
's "
Hope Eyrie
".) While there are significant numbers of memorial songs,
[23]
pessimistic songs blame carelessness, incompetence, and corruption, only rarely considering the frailties of a society built on technology or hopes for the future. Because these themes cross international boundaries in filk, they are not explainable as a purely American optimism vis-a-vis technology (in contrast to Nye, 1996).
[24]
That openness to participation is a marked norm in filking.
[25]
Occasional discussions over the boundaries of filk indicates the extent to which participants in filking are both aware of and keenly interested in the definition of filk as a community. Newsgroup debates over such topics as whether
"Weird Al" Yankovic
is a filker suggest the deep feelings involved. In practice, most formal recognition of filkers in various awards are to those who regularly attend self-identified filk events, not to professional artists whose work may be considered
found filk
.
[23]
[24]
[25]
[26]
[27]
Pegasus Awards
[
edit
]
The OVFF convention committee solicits nominations for finalists for the
Pegasus Awards
(the nominating ballot) during the late spring and summer. There is an opinion poll that runs during the year as well to help interested folk brainstorm ideas for the nominating ballot. The finalist ballot is distributed in the early fall and must be returned by the opening night of OVFF. Voting can be done online?either to nominate finalists or to vote for the finalists themselves. The final round of voting happens at OVFF itself, where handwritten ballots are collected after the annual Pegasus concert. The entire process is administered by the OVFF convention committee.
[28]
Filk Hall of Fame
[
edit
]
The Filk Hall of Fame
[29]
was created by David Hayman in 1995 as a complement to the Pegasus Awards.
[30]
Anyone may make a nomination.
[31]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Filk on Stage"
.
HowlRound Theatre Commons
. 4 December 2018
. Retrieved
10 September
2023
.
- ^
Coppa, Francesca
(2006). "A Brief History of Media Fandom". In
Hellekson, Karen
;
Busse, Kristina
(eds.).
Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet
. Jefferson, North Carolina:
McFarland & Company
. pp. 41?59.
ISBN
978-0-7864-2640-9
.
- ^
"About Interfilk"
.
Interfilk
.
Archived
from the original on 21 July 2017
. Retrieved
28 January
2023
.
- ^
"What is filk?"
.
Interfilk
. Archived from
the original
on 11 August 2002
. Retrieved
28 January
2023
.
- ^
a
b
Kare, Jordin
.
"What is filk?"
.
Interfilk
.
Archived
from the original on 31 August 2018
. Retrieved
28 January
2023
.
- ^
"The Definition of Filk" [song title], Mark Mandel,
Consonance 2003 Songbook
, p. 9
- ^
"Filk Hall of Fame: This Is My Tribe"
. Archived from
the original
on 16 April 2011.
- ^
Jardin, Xeni (1 September 2005).
"Filk Music for Nerd People"
.
Wired
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Bragg, Roy (18 July 2010).
"Filk: Sci-fi meets folk music"
.
San Antonio Express-News
. Retrieved
20 July
2010
.
- ^
Rogow, Roberta
(1991).
Futurespeak: A Fan's Guide to the Language of Science Fiction
. New York:
Paragon House
. p.
238
.
ISBN
978-1557783479
.
- ^
Gold, Lee
.
"An Egocentric and Convoluted History of Early Filk and Filking"
.
Fanac.org
. Retrieved
20 November
2014
.
Lee Jacobs, a LArea [= Los Angeles area] fan who [...] in the 50s, [had] submitted an essay to SAPS (Spectator Amateur Press Society) entitled "The Influence of Science Fiction on Modern American Filk Music" supposedly about science fiction incidents in folk song, but actually a straight-faced analysis of a number of thoroughly filthy "dirty songs", taking various metaphors in them as if they were meant literally.
Originally published in the
ConChord
12 Songbook
, 1997
- ^
Gold, Lee.
"Tracking Down The First Deliberate Use Of "Filk Song"
"
. Archived from
the original
on 6 December 2012
. Retrieved
25 November
2006
.
- ^
John Hall.
"Filk Music and the Dorsai Irregulars"
.
Di.org
. Retrieved
25 November
2006
.
- ^
"ConChord History Pages"
.
Sandiegofilk.com
. Retrieved
23 September
2016
.
- ^
"GAFilk: Georgia Filk Convention"
.
Gafilk.org
.
- ^
"The Northeast Filk Convention"
.
Nefilk.us
.
- ^
"FilkCONtinental"
.
Filkcontinental.de
. Retrieved
28 May
2022
.
- ^
Sutton, Brenda (2011).
"Guest of Honor: Dr. Mary Crowell"
.
Conflikt.org
. Retrieved
18 November
2014
.
We watched this beautiful young woman lug her keyboard (not the most portable of filk instruments, mind you) into the filk room with a slight amount of dread and a large measure of anticipation. And then she played her opening measures ? all Gershwiny, bluesy, and fine ? we all relaxed.
- ^
a
b
Gold, Lee
(2004).
"Welcome to the Filk Circle"
(PDF)
.
Massfilc.org
. Retrieved
18 November
2014
.
- ^
Fredric L. Rice.
"Lyrics and Tune Copyright 1983 Suzette Haden Elgin Song at the Ready The Filksing was crow"
.
Skeptictank.org
.
- ^
a
b
"Filk FAQ Welcome To The Circle"
.
Kayshapero.net
. Retrieved
28 May
2022
.
- ^
"Concert & Circle Etiquette"
(PDF)
.
Conflikt.org
. 2016. p. 1
. Retrieved
14 May
2017
.
- ^
a
b
Launius, Roger D. (5 October 2004).
"Got Filk? Lament for Apollo in Modern Sci-Fi Folk Music"
.
55th International Astronautical Congress of the International Astronautical Federation, the International Academy of Astronautics, and the International Institute of Space Law
. 5th International Astronautical Congress 2004; Vancouver; Canada.
doi
:
10.2514/6.IAC-04-IAA.6.16.1.06
. Retrieved
18 November
2014
.
The exact date is taken from the
congress program
Archived
6 September 2012 at the
Wayback Machine
, p. 106.
Printed in
Quest: The History of Spaceflight
, Bethesda, MD, USA: International Space Business Council, 12 (4) (
2005
), Johnson, Stephen, ed.
ISSN
1065-7738
- ^
a
b
Nye, David E. (1994).
American Technological Sublime
. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
ISBN
0-262-64034-1
.
OCLC
36213568
.
- ^
a
b
Jenkins, Henry
(1992). "
'Strangers No More We Sing': Filk Music, Folk Culture, and the Fan Community".
Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture
. New York: Routledge.
ISBN
0-415-90571-0
.
OCLC
26055104
.
- ^
Childs-Helton, Barry; Sally Childs-Helton (29 March 2003).
"Acceptance Speeches of Barry & Sally Childs-Helton"
.
Filk Hall of Fame
. Archived from
the original
on 23 October 2007
. Retrieved
29 November
2007
.
- ^
Solomon H. Davidoff,
"Filk:" A Study of Shared Musical Traditions and Related Phenomena among Fan Groups
(M.A. thesis, Bowling Green State University, 1996). Bowling Green State University Thesis 6673. (At BGSU,
call no. LD 4191 O6 No 6673
.)
- ^
"Pegasus Awards"
.
Ovff.org
.
- ^
"Filk Hall of Fame"
.
Filkontario.ca
.
- ^
Judith Hayman; Dave Hayman (March 2001).
"The Filk Hall of Fame: A Short History"
.
Filkontario.ca
.
- ^
"FHOF ? This is My Tribe"
.
Filkontario.ca
. Retrieved
28 May
2022
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
Look up
filk
in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Filk
.
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