Musicians - Filk music

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	Musicians - Filk music

Filk is a musical culture, genre, and community tied to science fiction/fantasy fandom, active since the early 1950s if concentrated primarily since the mid-1970s.

Definitions of filk

As Debbie Ridpath Ohi's compilation and the Interfilk page each demonstrate, there is no consensual definition of filk, though one could divide the different proposed definitions by their focus on the content and style of filk music or the cultural aspects of filking as an activity.

One definition focuses on filk as a genre: filk is folk music, usually with a science fiction or fantasy theme. This definition is not exact; filkers often also write filk songs about computers or cats. The other common definition is anthropological (and recursive): Filking is what is sung/performed by the network of people who originally gathered to sing at science fiction/fantasy conventions. Yet another definition focuses on filking as a community of those interested in filk music and who form part of the social network self-identified with filking. As described later in this article, the origins of filk in science fiction conventions and its current organization emphasizes the social-network aspect of filking.

Whichever definition one chooses, filk is a form of music created from within science fiction & fantasy fandom, often performed late at night at science fiction conventions, though there are now dedicated filk conventions in Canada, England, Germany, and the USA. And whichever definition one chooses, the boundaries of filking are muddy. For example, filking overlaps with the singing and music performed by participants in the Society for Creative Anachronism.

Styles and subjects

In keeping with the folk-culture roots of filk, the musical styles and topics of filk music are eclectic. While a plurality of filk is rooted firmly in acoustic-instrument folk music, other pieces and artists draw inspiration from rock, a cappella vocal groups, or other styles. The hobbyist and itinerant nature of filk events (especially folk circles) gives some advantages to acoustic-vocal soloists and small groups, who need only carry a lightweight instrument or two and whose rehearsals do not need to balance scheduling logistics against regular work and other obligations. One of the few rock-style groups in filk has been Ookla the Mok, whose studio recordings use techniques common in modern rock.

The range of topics in filk songs stems from its cultural roots in fandom. Many songs honor specific works in science fiction, fantasy, or speculative fiction. Other songs are about science, fantasy, computers, technology in general, or values related to technological change. Yet others are about the culture of fandom, including filk. Some clusters of songs do not fall neatly from the origins of filk in fandom, however, including songs about cats or popular culture in general. These are perhaps best explained as an outgrowth of filk as a folk culture, open in some respects to expansion by individual artists.

History

For the first few decades of the occasional science fiction convention, there had been late-night singing sessions in hotel rooms. Part of this practice may have been rooted in an older folk culture of fans. Some of the oldest filks coming out of fandom were protest songs with original words and music written by a group of New York fans called The Futurians, and were written by Fred Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth (see Damon Knight's book of the same name, which contains the words and music to several of them). With the break up of the city clubs common during the depression, filking moved to science fiction conventions, often in the form of late-night singing sessions in hotel rooms, lobbies, service passages, or wherever else the filkers could find enough room to play/sing music uninterrupted.

In the early 1950s, the term filk music started as a misspelling of folk music in an essay by Lee Jacobs, "The Influence of Science Fiction on Modern American Filk Music." While claim that the editor of the Spectator Amateur Press Society refused to publish it, what is clear in the oral tradition of filking is that Jacobs's typo became the self-identified term for the genre/subculture while it was still an informal, unrecognized activity at conventions. Its first documented deliberate use was by Karen Kruse Anderson in Die Zeitschrift für vollständigen Unsinn (The Journal for Utter Nonsense) #774 (June 1953), for a song written by her husband Poul Anderson.

At the 1974 World Science Fiction Convention, author Bob Asprin announced publicly the creation of a group of volunteers he dubbed the , and a singing session ensued later that night (according to John Hall's essay, "" (a reference to a culture in Gordon R. Dickson's Childe Cycle books). In the 1970s and 1980s, filking slowly became established as an acknowledged activity at science fiction conventions. Some convention organizers allotted hotel function space late at night for filkers, or filking occurred in hallways, bars or any other place that the filkers could find. Some convention organizers in the 1980s began inviting guests specifically for their filking. Some specialized conventions focused entirely on filk, beginning with FilkCon in Chicago in 1979, organized by and Curt Clemmer, later joined by BayFilk in Northern California; the (OVFF) in Columbus, Ohio; ConChord in Los Angeles, California; Musicon in Nashville, Tennessee; near Toronto, Ontario; a rotating British filkcon; and others. These efforts grew to raising funds for traveling filkers. The first was a British Filk Fund modeled on the and then, in the early 1990s, several active organizers in North America , which is now the most active traveling filker fund. Beginning with British filker Mike Whitaker in 1992, 40 filkers were the beneficiaries of subsidies in its first decade. OVFF began presenting the Pegasus Award annually for excellence in filk in 1984, and started the in 1995.

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