From: greg@netcom.com (Greg Bullough)
Subject: Re: Vancouver Folk Festival
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 92 17:02:37 GMT
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 

In article <13827@mindlink.bc.ca> Peter_Ronald@mindlink.bc.ca (Peter Ronald) writes:
>> Greg Bullough writes:
>> Gawd, but this sounds grim, and self-righteous and... yuck.
>> 
>> Then again, there's that which is just offensive and sexist (on the
>> surface) such as Saffire.
>
>The Vancouver Folk Festival does take its politics seriously. One review in the
>local paper compared it to eating broccoli! Folk music is traditionally an
>expression of oppressed people.
 
Pretty narrow definition, there. And, perhaps as the gen-u-ine article,
it works pretty well (e.g. Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier, Lowlands of
Holland, etc). And when used by someone the way Holly Near sometimes
does (e.g. "The Activity Room") and doesn't ("No More Genocide"), it
can be truly uplifting. But when presented by the "I Will Now Write a
Folk Song" types who've been grinding out the same vaguely dissatisfied
doggerel for 30 years, it's just another form of pop/schlock music, which
is hardly worth the human energy to produce. It's interesting, you know;
the "oppressed people" who are the true folk musicians don't spout much
of this grim stuff. As far as I can tell, most of the "folk" musicians
singing this self-righteous stuff interspersed with the rhetoric of
the oppressed come from privileged middle-to-upper class white backgrounds.
They've mostly been luxuriating in oppression for decades, now.

One point that you've made, and that Jon has put a more accurate spin
on is that "The Vancouver Folk Festival does take *it's* politics seriously."
As Jon pointed out, in noting the musician who was shouted down by members
of the audience, it doesn't seem to take seriously those who are either
in opposition to or neutral with regard to their agenda. 
 
This is the kind of crap which led Peter Bellamy to the depths of his despair.

>                                I for one am proud to be associated (as a
>volunteer) with a successful event of this kind that is smart and progressive.

Depends, I guess, on how you define intellegence and progress.

>With any luck, even some of the men in attendance may have learned from Saffire
>(or other performers) about the reality of sexism and why humour is one way of
>dealing with rage.
 
Yes, well, when your rage infringes on my rights, what do we do, hmmm? I'm
tired of people's anger being used as an excuse for their behavior. Hell the
KKK is angry, should we welcome them? They probably have some traditional 
songs to share, about what they did to the niggers back in the good ol' days.

>If folk music can do any good at all, let it communicate
>clearly to Robert and Greg and others that sexism is about more than
>generalizations based on gendre.
 
Obviously. However that doesn't change my feeling in the matter. I'm not going
to compose a song-cum-political-statement about, say, the rights of estranged
fathers named "Ball Busters" which labels women as "castrating bitches" and then
expect to be applauded and paid for the singing of it. It's not an appropriate
manner in which to sing about a cause. I choose not to do that because, even
though there are some women in the world who fit that definition, it is unfair,
mean-spirited, and unkind to the rest. I insist upon the same respect for me
as an individual and as a member of the male gender. And I will criticize those
who don't and those who choose to give them a stage. 
 
Greg