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The term «Celtic music»

KhwarizmiKhwarizmi
edited 2011-01-16 14:17:58 in General
Because you never know what you might see.
It's not Celtic.  It's Scottish folk, or Irish folk, or maybe Breton or Welsh folk.  We have no idea what music the ancient Celts played and listened to; «Celtic music» is a concept invented by the music industry as a marketing gimmick, which has no basis in the traditions commonly described as «Celtic», and which carries a number of misleading political implications.

Comments

  • Super LazuliSuper Lazuli
    yea i make potions if ya know what i mean
    "Celtic Music" is actually thought to have been coined by Enya.
  • KhwarizmiKhwarizmi
    edited 2011-01-16 14:31:35
    Because you never know what you might see.
    Enya, music industry, same difference. :P

    She's Irish, anyway, and for various reasons the concept of an ancient, shared Celtic heritage is popular there.  But it's not what performers of traditional Irish music consider themselves to play, or at least, it wasn't until recently.
  • Super LazuliSuper Lazuli
    yea i make potions if ya know what i mean
    Meh, etymology.

    I've seen this thread a dozen or so times on various music forums I visit. And often, some Scottish or Irish person comes in and declares the OP to not understand anything. I won't do that though.
  • KhwarizmiKhwarizmi
    Because you never know what you might see.
    Well, I guess it's possible I've missed some important, longstanding tradition.  The only people I can imagine being strong supporters of the term would be Pan-Celtic nationalists with an agenda.  Then again, there have for a long time been some very strong ties between Irish nationalism and Irish folk, so I guess it's not so black-and-white as that.
  • Super LazuliSuper Lazuli
    yea i make potions if ya know what i mean
    *shrug*

    I blame Enya for the whole thing, mostly because I can.
  • KhwarizmiKhwarizmi
    Because you never know what you might see.
    I suppose the advantage of the term is that you can apply it to artists like Enya who play a fusion of traditional and modern music that wouldn't ordinarily be considered folk (because it's too rocky or new age-y for the die-hard folk purists, and because for some reason folk has come to imply a singer-songwriter with an acoustic guitar).
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