Ask any ten filkers this question and
you will get at least fifteen answers (
go
not to the filkers for advice...). But this will probably do for
getting on with:
Filk
- n. A subset of folk music dealing primarily with science
fiction, science fact and fantasy themes.
Note the "primarily." We sing about all sorts of things in our filk
circle - cats and lost loves and idiocies at work; old favorites, new
favorites. Filk grew out of science fiction and fantasy fandom. There
are some signs it's growing
beyond
fandom - though some would argue that it would stop being filk at that
point and become something else... (More on this later.)
- v.i. To participate in this
activity, whether by performing (in any manner) or listening.
Participation is the key idea here. There are those who sing; there are
those who play; there are those who listen. All of them count as
filkers. The ideal, though, is to get everyone in the room singing at
some point - even if it's only singing along to the chorus. (More on
this later, too.)
- v.t. To compose new lyrics (to a
pre-existing song).
This is what a lot of people take to be the whole of filk - and not a
few within that group treat "filk" as a synonym of "steal". In fact,
not only is there a large number of original songs that I would
consider filk, but there's a surprising number of songs in a somewhat
unexpected category: new music to old lyrics - such as the poetry of
Rudyard Kipling; the songs sung by Tolkien's characters; and the songs
of Heinlein's space bard Rhysling.
Executive summary: We get together; some of us sing; some of us play
instruments; all of us (hopefully) have fun.
So, you may ask...
Why should I care?
Glad you asked...
Hmm. Where'd this soapbox come from?
