Filk is a musical culture, genre, and community tied to science fiction/fantasy fandom. The genre has been active since the early 1950s, and played primarily since the mid-1970s.
As Debbie Ridpath Ohi's compilation What Is Filk? and the Interfilk What Is Filk page each demonstrate, there is no consensus 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 is based on filk as a genre: filk is folk music, usually with a science fiction or fantasy theme. But this definition is not exact. Filkers have been known to write filk songs about a variety of topics, including but not limited to tangentially-related topics such as computers and cats. The other common definition is anthropological (and recursive): Filk is what is sung or 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 or at LARPs.
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 filk 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 itself (both as a phenomenon within fandom, and as a sub-culture). Many filk songs (such as Leslie Fish's "Carmen Miranda's Ghost Is Haunting Space Station 3") are humorous while others treat their subjects seriously (like Steve Macdonald's "Journey's Done").
However, some common themes do not fall neatly into filk's science fiction origins. Such topics include songs about cats, popular culture, and politics. These are perhaps best explained as an outgrowth of filk as a folk culture, open in some respects to expansion by individual artists.
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 some sources 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.[1]
The 1950s also saw the first formal publication of filksongs, generally as lyric sheets, but occasionally complete with (often original) music. While many of those original songs faded into obscurity, some continued to be popular for decades. By the late 1970s, periodicals such as Kantele and Philk Fee-Nom-Ee-Non offered a ready outlet for filk writers.
At the 1974 World Science Fiction Convention author Bob Asprin announced publicly the creation of a group of volunteers he dubbed the Dorsai Irregulars, and a singing session ensued later that night.[2] 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 Margaret Middleton and Curt Clemmer, later joined by BayFilk in Northern California; the Ohio Valley Filk Fest (OVFF) in Columbus, Ohio; ConChord in Los Angeles, California; Musicon in Nashville, Tennessee; FilKONtario near Toronto, Ontario; a rotating British filkcon; the German FilkCONtinental; and others.
These efforts grew to raising funds for traveling filkers. The first was a British Filk Fund modeled on the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund and then, in the early 1990s, several active organizers in North America created Interfilk, which is now the most active traveling filker fund. Beginning with British filker Mike Whitaker in 1992, 40 filkers were the beneficiaries of Interfilk subsidies in its first decade. OVFF began presenting the Pegasus Award annually for excellence in filk in 1984, and FilkOntario started the Filk Hall of Fame in 1995, honoring contributions to the community as wellas to the music.
After years of amateur tape recordings made at filksings, a trickle of studio-produced albums and tapes began to arrive in the 1970s. These included Folk Songs for Folk Who Ain't Been Yet (featuring Leslie Fish and friends) and Children of the Future by Karen Willson.
Off Centaur Publications was one of the first formal attempts to regularly produce and promote filk albums, followed by many others since. As the costs of amateur album production dropped in the 1990s, more filkers created albums and, more recently, audio files available for downloading online.
E-mail and the internet have also fostered the networking of self-identified filkers. In the late 1980s, California filker Kay Shapero created the filk group on the Fidonet hobbyist network of electronic bulletin boards. The later creation of other electronic forums—the Usenet group rec.music.filk, a British Isles e-mail list and the German language list, an IRC channel devoted to filking, and a growing cluster of filkers blogging on LiveJournal (including a LiveJournal community), to pick a few examples—have mirrored the growing connections among other self-identified social networks (or subcultures). The availability of several hundred albums labeled filk, the proliferation of specialty filk conventions, and the continued growth of electronic means for community connections have led to an intensification of community building. A few years into the 21st century, filking as an identifiable community exists on at least three continents.
Filksongs are also available as live online feeds, including one at www.live365.com/stations/filk_com which is sponsored by DAG Productions.
On the Album "Precious Friend," Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie perform "Old Time Religion," in a filk version. Most of the verses of this version were by Gordon Dickson; when Seeger finally discovered this, after the album was issued, he sent royalties on to Dickson.
There are several shared values that come from the cultural creation of filk in a social network, even one that spans several continents.
At a deep level, the folk culture of filk validates creative arts in the midst of an explicitly technological culture. When accepting induction into the Filk Hall of Fame in 2003, ethnomusicologist Sally Childs-Helton said, We have taken our right to be creative and to literally "play" in the best sense of that word. Filk combines folk roots, live music circles, and dominant acoustical instrumentation, on the one hand, with high-tech cultural maintenance, on the other hand—a dense network of filkers' web pages, recordings, sound reinforcement at filk conventions, e-mail lists, and so on. The eclectic content of filk frequently contains that assertion of human creativity, especially in connection with technology. (See for example Leslie Fish's Hope Eyrie.) While there are significant numbers of memorial songs (e.g., Launius, 2004), pessimistic songs blame carelessness, incompetence, and corruption, only rarely considering the frailties of a society built on technology or hopes for the future. Because these themes cross international boundaries in filk, they are not explainable as a purely American optimism vis-a-vis technology (in contrast to Nye, 1996).
Within the community, the folk culture of filk acknowledges the legitimacy of music created by artists with a broad range of skills. Those who actively identify themselves as filkers include professional musicians, musical novices, and all ranges in between. The repeat appearances of professional musicians at filk-specific conventions suggests a certain amount of respect given high levels of musical skill within filking, even while the culture is open to less experienced musicians. Whether the occasion is a housefilk in someone's home or a convention (festival) over a weekend, filk culture encourages respectful listening regardless of the performers' skill level and manifest opportunities for participation from single songs in a musical circle to scheduled concerts.
That openness to participation is a marked norm in filking (e.g., Jenkins, 1992) and makes it relatively unique in a larger society that glorifies competition and super-stardom in performance arts. Mentorship within the filk community includes formal workshops at conventions as well as the informal swapping of advice in various forums.
Occasional discussions over the boundaries of filk indicates the extent to which participants in filking are both aware of and keenly interested in the definition of filk as a community. Newsgroup debates over such topics as whether 'Weird Al' Yankovic is a filker suggest the deep feelings involved. In practice, most formal recognition of filkers in various awards are to those who regularly attend self-identified filk events, not to professional artists whose work may be considered found filk.
Childs-Helton, Barry; Sally Childs-Helton (2003-03-29). Acceptance Speeches of Barry & Sally Childs-Helton. Filk Hall of Fame. Retrieved on 2007-11-29.Solomon H. Davidoff, "Filk:" A Study of Shared Musical Traditions and Related Phenomena among Fan Groups (M.A. thesis, Bowling Green State University, 1996). Bowling Green State University Thesis 6673. (At BGSU,call no. LD 4191 O6 No 6673.)Jenkins, Henry (1992). "'Strangers No More We Sing': Filk Music, Folk Culture, and the Fan Community", Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0415905710. OCLC 26055104.Launius, Roger D. (2004-10-08), “Got Filk? Lament For Apollo In Modern Science Fiction Folk Music”, 55th International Astronautical Congress 2004, Vancouver, Canada, pp. 1-11Nye, David E. (1994). American Technological Sublime. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. ISBN 0262640341. OCLC 36213568.Regular filk conventions sorted by time of year. Note that the following list is only for filk-specific conventions; there are also many general conventions which host filk programming.
Convention nameRegionMonthHomepageUK filk convention (has an annual nickname)The floating northeastern U.S. filk conventionLate September - early OctoberThe Pegasus Awards were founded to recognize and honor excellence in filking. These awards are given annually at the Ohio Valley Filk Fest (or OVFF). Anyone with an interest in filk can nominate songs or individuals for the awards, and anyone can vote. It is not necessary to be a member of the convention to be involved in the nomination and voting process.
Currently awards are given in six categories: Best Song, Best Performer, Best Writer/Composer, Best Classic Song and 2 topical categories that vary from year to year. Some examples of past categories include: Best Love Song, Best Literature Song, Best Techie Song, Best Sing Along, etc.
The OVFF convention committee solicits nominations for Finalists for the Pegasus Awards (the Nominating Ballot) during the late spring and summer. There is an opinion poll that runs during the year as well to help interested folk brainstorm ideas for the Nominating Ballot. The Finalist Ballot is distributed in the early fall, and must be returned by the opening night of OVFF. Voting can be done online- either to nominate Finalists, or to vote for the Finalists themselves. The final round of voting happens at OVFF itself, where handwritten ballots are collected after the annual Pegasus concert. The entire process is administered by the OVFF convention committee.
ConClave (convention)ConClave
Genre Science Fiction
Venue Crowne Plaza Detroit Metro Airport
Location Romulus, Michigan
Country United States
First held 1976
Organizer ConClave, Incorporated
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Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community of people actively interested in science fiction and fantasy literature, and in contact with one another based upon that interest.
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Folk song can have a number of different meanings, including: Traditional music: The original meaning of the term "folk music" was synonymous with the term "Traditional music", also often including World
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Science fiction (abbreviated SF or sci-fi with varying punctuation and capitalization) is a broad genre of fiction that often involves speculations based on current or future science or technology.
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Music is the common name of a series of music creation programs created by Jester Interactive and published by Codemasters. The programs are not strictly computer and video games, but rather tools that allow the user to create music.
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Fandom (from the noun fan and the affix -dom, as in kingdom, dukedom, etc.) is a term used to refer to a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of sympathy and camaraderie with others who share a
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Science fiction conventions are gatherings of the community of fans (called science fiction fandom) of various forms of speculative fiction including science fiction and fantasy.
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Society for Creative Anachronism (usually shortened to SCA) is a historical re-creation and living history group founded in 1966 in California, which attempts to recreate pre-17th century Western European
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This article is part of
the Role-playing games series
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Makeup of a role-playing game:
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Rock music
Stylistic origins
Rock and roll, ultimately blues,
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A cappella (Italian: “at chapel” or Latin: "From the chapel/choir") music is vocal music or singing without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way.
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Ookla the Mok is the name of a filk band fronted by Rand Bellavia and Adam English. The band is named after a character from the Ruby-Spears Productions cartoon Thundarr the Barbarian, created by Steve Gerber.
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Leslie Fish
Background information
Born New Jersey, United States
Genre(s) Filk
Leslie Fish is a filk musician, author, and anarchist political activist.
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Carmen Miranda
from the film The Gang's All Here (1943)
Born Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha
February 9, 1909(1909-02-09)
Marco de Canaveses, Portugal
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Science fiction conventions are gatherings of the community of fans (called science fiction fandom) of various forms of speculative fiction including science fiction and fantasy.
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The Futurians were an influential group of science fiction fans, many of whom became editors and writers as well. The Futurians were based in New York City and were a major force in the development of science fiction writing and science
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This article is about the writer and editor. For the historian, see Frederick J. Pohl.
Frederik Pohl
Frederik Pohl at the 2008 UCR J.
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Cyril Michael Kornbluth (July 23, 1923–March 21, 1958 — pen-names: Cecil Corwin, S.D. Gottesman, Edward J. Bellin, Kenneth Falconer, Walter C.
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Damon Knight
Born September 19, 1922(1922-09-19)
Died April 15, 2002 (aged 79)
Occupation author, editor, critic
Nationality United States
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Karen Kruse Anderson (IPA: /kru?zi/; born 1932) is the widow and sometime co-author of Poul Anderson, and mother-in-law of writer Greg Bear.
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Poul Anderson
Pen name A. A. Craig, Michael Karageorge, Winston P. Sanders, P. A. Kingsley[1]
Occupation Novelist, short story author
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A kantele (pronounced ['k?ntele] in Finnish) or kannel
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Robert Lynn Asprin
Born 28 June 1946(1946-06-28)
St. Johns, Michigan
Died 22 May 2008 (aged 61)
New Orleans, Lousiana
Occupation Fiction Author
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City of Chicago
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Ohio Valley Filk Fest
Status Active
Genre Filk music
Location Dublin, Ohio
Country United States
First held 1984
Official website
The Ohio Valley Filk Fest
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City of Los Angeles
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Nickname: L.A.
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Nashville, Tennessee
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Nickname: Music City
Nashville, Tennessee
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Coordinates: 43°39'N, 79°23'W
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Ontario
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: Ut Incepit Fidelis Sic Permanet (Latin)
(Translation: "Loyal she began, loyal she remains")
Capital Toronto
Largest city Toronto
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Filk is a musical culture, genre, and community tied to science fiction/fantasy fandom. The genre has been active since the early 1950s, and played primarily since the mid-1970s.
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