Newsgroups: uk.music.folk
Subject: Re: Is folk music dead?
From: Dick Gaughan <dickg (@) dickalba.demon.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2000 12:36:38 +0100

In <EZy9+xATbG05Ew8+ (@) beaufort.demon.co.uk> on Tue, 26 Sep 2000 10:05:23 +0100, Peter Wilton <pjsw (@) beaufort.demon.co.uk> wrote:

>To which musics do you think this factor is attached? English traditional, presumably: any others?

Particularly English and German, which were both severely damaged by the post-War Social Democratic consensus making the disastrous error of believing that expressions of national identity were essentially chauvinist and that nationalism was exclusively a phenomenon of the Right. By making this extremely shallow and shortsighted presumption, and completely ignoring the very real social need for people to hold and express some sense of cohesive regional/national communal identity, they allowed the Right to hijack legitimate nationalist aspirations throughout Europe, thereby actively assisting in creating the perception that "Nationalist" was synonymous with "Right".

Basically, by abandoning nationalism to the Right they forced themselves into the polically expedient downward spiral of having to distance themselves even further from any taint of nationalism, thereby strengthening even more the negative perceptions of nationalism etc. Had they paid a little more attention to the likes of MacLean and Connolly on the question of national identity they might perhaps have avoided this disastrous error.

I don't want to start claiming any particularly prophetic skills but I was warning about this 20 years ago in both England and Germany - that the Centre-Left orthodoxy was in serious danger of allowing the Neo-Nazi movement to usurp the whole question of national identity, repeating the tactic it had used in Germany and, to a lesser extent, Italy in the late 20s and early 30s.

When Ridley, Thatcher et al were draping themselves in the Union Flag and peddling their peculiar brand of "British=English=Best" xenophobia, thereby doing the most effective possible PR job for Scots, Irish and Welsh separatism, I was constantly boring people within the Trades Union movement by arguing that for the Left in England to keep on ignoring the national identity question would be to create a vacuum which would eventually be filled one way or another.

It is an absolute tragedy that we have now reached the position where the only people generally perceived to be proudly proclaiming "Englishness" are drunken thugs wrapped in the flag of England rampaging through European cities. It would be foolish to underestimate the likely consequences of this for public perceptions of English "traditional" music. Where "Englishness" is perceived as being linked with chauvinist and anti-social behaviour, there is the inevitable danger that things which are seen as being quintessentially English will be shunned by those who wish to avoid guilt by association.

Perhaps a study of the experience in Scotland with isolating and marginalising the Right elements within nationalism could prove useful to our southern neighbours, particularly the role of "traditional" music in helping to strengthen perceptions of nationalism as a positive, progressive force.

Forget "Flower of Scotland" - it is an anachronism, representative purely of an older strand of emotionalism. These days most Scots, especially younger people, no longer give a toss about "Proud Edward's Army" and tend more towards the views represented by Brian McNeill's "No Gods and Precious Few Heroes" or perhaps even "Both Sides the Tweed".

It is my own belief that in order for traditional music to flourish it has to have relevance to the lives of people. The reason why I sing traditional songs has little to do with their antiquarian value. I am not criticising those who wish to "keep the old songs alive" any more than I do those who wish to collect antique furniture - but those doing so must be aware that they will inevitably be a small, hobbyist minority. The reason why traditional music is in the ascendant in Scotland is because it speaks to people *now* about their lives *today*.

I would argue that the principles which guided the first wave of the so-called Folksong Revival of the 50s, spearheaded by Lloyd, MacColl, Henderson, Buchan etc are probably even more vital today - if you want people to listen to and embrace traditional song, sing about *them*, sing about *their* lives, *their* hopes, fears, aspirations and realities. And, yes, sing about their past - in order to help them understand their present.

Adrian Mitchell once wrote something which is highly instructive to the topic we're discussing -

Most people
Ignore
Most poetry
Because
Most poetry
Ignores
Most people.

--
DG

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