What is folk music?
Folk music, to borrow from the CD reviewing policy of fRoots magazine, is music which has some roots in a tradition. The word folk has acquired multiple connotations, from the use of the phrase by the American record companies to mean anyone playing an acoustic guitar , to the outsiders image of a form of music exclusively practiced by and listened to by old white bearded men in Arran sweaters singing with one or more fingers in one or more of their ears. Recent attempts to replace the word folk with the word roots have gained some but not universal acceptance, and the word Celtic has probably suffered more abuse and stretch marks at the hands of the marketing types even than the word folk . Anyone wishing for a definition of Celtic should at this point go and read the separate rec.music.celtic newsgroup for several months. Use of acoustic instruments does not automatically mean that the resultant music is folk music, nor does the use of electronic instruments or amplification mean tha
