[Ads-l] Antedating of "Folk-Singer"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Bing Chatbot characterizes "folk music" as follows :

"Folk music is known for its storytelling and often tackles 'taboo' topics
like oppression, politics, depression, and war."

So nowadays the *topic* mostly defines the genre. According to a robot.

JL

On Sat, Jul 15, 2023 at 9:56 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> What I find interesting is that the first "folk singers" appear to have
> been national poets or, in the case of the sagas, storytellers.
>
> The "Great Man" theory as applied to national cultures.
>
> What is "folk" has been a vexed question for a long time.
>
> Music review by John Donahue in _The New Yorker_, June 8, 2015, p. 26:
>
> "Olivia Chaney...is bringing the grand tradition of British folk music
> into the twenty-first century...She often performs barefoot....When she
> takes her place behind the harmonium ... and, with a steely gaze, starts
> singing, it's as if a mystical spirit has entered the room. It's chilling
> when she slowly intones 'Stand by the roadside/ facing the headlights/ wait
> for the break of dawn,' on her adaptation of 'Blessed Instant,' by the
> Norwegian jazz singer Sidsel Endresen...."
>
> JL
>
> On Sat, Jul 15, 2023 at 8:42 AM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>
> wrote:
>
>> I believe the second article I ever published, many years ago, was titled
>> "Antedatings of Folk- Compounds in OED and Its Supplement."  The etymology
>> of these compounds is complicated: some of them were inspired by W. J.
>> Thoms's coinage of "folk-lore" in 1846, others were formed on German models.
>>
>> folk-singer (OED 1898)
>>
>> 1870 _The Orchestra_ 2 Sept. 378 (ProQuest)  Dupont on the other hand was
>> a Folk singer -- a poet of the people.
>>
>> Fred Shapiro
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>


-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org