I like the letter to this month’s Wire magazine by Vivien Priestley of Walsington, UK who wrote in response to David Keenan’s provocative (and, I have to say, confusing) article on what he calls Hypnagogic pop. This is the name he gives to the strand of (mostly) American music which blends together elements of the nation’s old weird past and more recent pop culture. (It has already been nominated by some as the ‘worst genre created by a journalist’)
The letter points out that musicians like The Skaters, Pocahaunted & Ariel Pink are “wrestling with various versions of the past and trying to get beyond a merely nostalgic revivalism”. The writer asks “……has there ever been a moment in music before now where sound has been so completely soaked in traces of the past without actually sounding like anything other than the present, or the future?”
This question ties in well with a book I’ve been reading by Gene Bluestein on folk and pop in American culture called ‘Poplore’ (University of Massachusetts Press, 1994).
It’s a study which looks at what we mean by these catchall terms ‘Folk’ and ‘Pop’ and, in part, also seeks to lay to rest the myth that the US has no authentic Folk tradition.
Poplore is defined as being materials “disseminated by commercial entertainment …but which function traditionally”. This I take to mean the contamination of rural folklore with urban pop that Keenan wrote about. Poplore represents more progressive ideas which stand for transformation and do not regard tradition as stagnant but “points to a radically egalitarian commitment that seriously undermines the racist and sexist values of bourgeois society”.
Bluestein points out how, in marked contrast, Folk in the old world is primarily associated with conservative values since it stands mainly for the preservation of historically remote customs and practices. In this way Folklore becomes synonymous with a dogged resistance to change. This explains why literacy, industrialization and urbanization are regarded as enemies of Folk tradition and why the wealthy and powerful – who have the most to gain by maintaining the status quo – are the principle caretakers of this idea of the ‘timeless’ values of the past.
The book goes on to “study the way in which folk and popular culture have combined to redefine the nature of the new world in the making”. Bluestein bases a lot of his theories on the work of German 18th century Enlightenment philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder for whom “folk song was … a remnant of an antique and outmoded system of expression and values [but] it lives in contemporary society”. To Herder, tradition fuelled the “continuous spiritual genesis” of culture.
Crucially this pluralist definition of a people’s culture in the US does not emerge from the dominant interest groups but from minorities, principally African-Americans. The irrefutable fact is that African sources have supplied the basic vocal styles and rhythmic foundation of American music.
Speaking of negro folk music – and ballads like ‘John Henry or ‘Frankie’ – Alan Lomax noted its “profound influence on American culture” highlighting the paradox of musical integration in a society with a shameful history of racial segregation.
Bluestein makes the crucial point that “black culture expresses not only the history and aspirations of African-Americans but of all Americans” as exemplified by the fact that the civil rights anthem – We Shall Overcome – as adapted by Pete Seeger began life as an African-American freedom song.
A great quote by Walt Whitman summarises all this perfectly: “the genius of American culture is not its purity but in its rapid absorption of many different traditions” .
I think this is what Keenan partly wanted to highlight with his piece on Hypnagogic pop and Poplore has the advantage of being a much a prettier label.
