Almost 20 years ago Michael Brocken created from his doctoral research, what became both a seminal and contested volume concerning the social mores surrounding the British Folk Revival up to that point in time: The British Folk Revival 1944–2002. In this long-overdue second edition he revisits not only his own research, but also that of others from the 1990s and early 21st century. He then considers how a discourse of folkloric authenticity emerged in the closing years of the 19th century and how a worrying nationalistic immanence came to surround folk music and dance during the inter-war years. Brocken also proposes that the media: records, radio and TV in post-WWII folk revivalism can offer us important insights into how self-directed learning of the folk guitar emerged.
Brocken moves on to consider the business structures of the contemporary folk scene and how relationships are formed between contemporary folk business and the digital and social media spheres. In his penultimate chapter he discusses the masculinisation of folk traditions and asks important questions about how our folk traditions are carried and are authorised. In the final chapter he also considers the rise of an exciting new folk live music built environment.
Author(s): Michael Brocken
Series: Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series
Edition: 2
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 254
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Series Information
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
1 The Inherent Morphology of Folklore and Folk Song: A ‘Changing Same’
Revivals: an Introduction
Folklore: Uses, Meanings and Values
Folk Music Revivalist Binarisms in the UK
USA: Non-Binary ‘Poplore’
Morphology
My Previous Work
Teaching Folk Revivalism
Problems
Mea Culpa
This Second Volume
Notes
2 A Selective Consideration of Folk Literature in Relation to the First Edition of The British Folk Revival
Folk Literature
Folk Literature: From ‘Readerly’ to ‘Writerly’ Texts
The Seminal, Yet ‘Readerly’ Texts of A.L. (Bert) Lloyd
‘Reading’ The Singing Englishman
Folk Song in England
Post-structural ‘Writerly’ Texts
Histories
Summary
Notes
3 The Aesthetics and Practicalities of Revivalism: a Conservative-Socialist-Recorded Sound ‘Revolution’?
Contexts
Early Revivalist Aesthetics
Music and Dance
Nationalism Expounded: Mannerbund Morphology and Rolf Gardiner
Kibbo Kift Kindred
Recorded Sound, ‘Otherness’ and the Mediated Acknowledgement of a ‘Folk’ Proletariat
[Lack Of] Value?
The Workers’ Music Association
Summary
Notes
4 Folk, Blues and Self-Directed Learning With the Post-WWII Britain Media
Guitarists
Folk and Blues Mediations
Print Media
Karl Dallas the Mediator
Radio: Key Individuals
Frances Line
Records
Semiotics
Transatlantic
Self-directed Learning
Stefan Grossman: How to Play Blues Guitar (LP and Booklet)
Folk and Blues On TV
John Pearse: Hold Down a Chord
Summary
Notes
5 The Business of Folk
Labels, Festivals, PR
The Resilience of the Folk Music Vinyl and CD Formats
Vinyl
The Continuance of an Independent Aesthetic: Folk Labels
Proper Distribution
Navigator
Greentrax Recordings: 35 Years and Still Going Strong
Birnam
(Folk) Promotions and Publicity
Folk Music PR
Jane Brace PR
Folk Music Business: Rose Price and Soundbox Acoustic & Roots, Pre- and Post-Covid
Summary
Notes
6 New Folk Media in the Social Sphere
Folk Music Cyberspace and Learning
TikTok and Nathan Evans
BBC Local Radio, Internet Radio, and the Folk Scene in 2021
Blues and Roots Radio
Summary
Notes
7 Gendered Folk Mythologies
Gender and My Late 1990s Thesis: Audiences
Demarcating the Male Folk Sphere
Bob Buckle Versus Ewan MacColl
Folk Music Performer (I) Lizzy Hardingham
Emily Portman
Challenging Historic Traditions: Steph Meskell’s Minerva Arts Cheshire Souling Project 2017
Soul Plays in Cheshire
Audio and Oral History
Knutsford
Summary
Notes
8 The Folk Built Environment and the Development of ‘Thirdspace’
Introduction
The Popular Music Built Environment
City Pubs and Folk Meaning
In Support of Fred McCormick and His Folk Club/pub Epiphany
21st-century Folk Performance Places and Spaces
i) The Listener: St Mary’s Creative Centre, Chester
ii) The Artist: Gerry Ffrench, Bricolage and The Road May Rise
iii) The Promoter: Bev Dean and the Lion Salt Works Museum, Northwich
Beverley and Ian
Summary
Notes
Bibliography
Index
