How have the folk musicians learned to deal with technology?
As you yourself have indicated, when you first started your research in the 1960s, they were afraid to be recorded. So a tremendous shift seems to have taken place in their attitude. They have no problems whatsoever with the microphone today. Nor are they camera conscious. In fact, they like to be photographed. They are not tense about these situations, but perfectly relaxed. Let me now lead to a somewhat harder question: How much do the musicians ‘take in’ of a foreign place? I’m not just thinking about their concerts as such, where they seem to have no problem in striking a rapport with the audience. I’m thinking about the larger social interactions abroad. How do these interactions affect them when they get back home? What I’ve observed over the years is that when I first used to go their villages and stay with them, they cared very little about matters relating to hygiene, whether this involved drinking water, or blankets or quilts or pillows. Their living conditions were filthy. I
