Last night, while perusing YouTube, I came across an interview with Noel Gallagher (of whom I’m a fan – I like the juxtaposition of his boorish persona and actual wit and intelligence).
He said that a musical movement becomes exciting and when its absorbed into mainstream culture and naturally cited britpop as an example, as well as punk and The Beatles (a movement all by themselves, according to Noel).
Folk might seem an unlikely candidate for a yoof movement, but with acts like Peggy Sue, Slow Club and Mumford and Sons causing involuntary thang-shaking and Laura Marling and Jay Jay Pistolet melting even the hardest of hearts I think it’s a contender.
And folk music is, after all, music for the folk. Traditional folk songs were simple – and memorable – enough to be passed down through generations without being written down. It’s music for everyone without exclusivity, snobbery or egotism.
With the new injection of youth into the scene perhaps folk will once again become the music of the people. That’s if we can get some publicity but with NME still stuck in the indie-schmindie past (they were slow to catch onto punk, too) it looks like that’s down to bloggers and specialist sites for the time being.