About Filk
"I Know It When I See It"
Filk music is a fuzzy medium. Much of it you will only hear
late at night at SF conventions (and if I said "just as well", all
manner of filkers would rise up in righteous wrath and strangle me
with their guitar strings, so I won't). Then again, some of
filk's most prominent and best-loved performers are professionals
who make their livings singing in bars and at weddings and recording
CDs -- and using the same material in all those venues. Much
of the Doctor Demento playlist arguably qualifies as filk, as
does most of Weird Al Yankovic's material -- but folk and
folk-rock bands such as Golden Bough and Tempest have
also wandered under the filk umbrella, and you will find filksongs
set to tunes by the Beach Boys, the Beatles, and
Pink Floyd.
It is not a coincidence that "filk" is a derivation of "folk".
I won't try here to pin down the moment when filk was born, but it
seems to have become a significant subset of SF fandom either during
or just after the "folk revival" of the late 1950s and early '60s,
in the heyday of the Weavers and the Kingston Trio, of
Peter, Paul & Mary and Tom Paxton. Filk circles
at cons have a good deal in common with the "hootenannies" and
college-campus coffeehouses of that time and place, and writers of
filk lyrics (myself included) have borrowed tunes from many songs
written or popularized in those years.
Though there's a wide range of material nowadays, filk songs can
be broadly grouped into roughly two categories: parody/humor and
alternate-folk. The parodies are largely self-explanatory,
consisting of songs zinging popular media universes (Star Trek,
Babylon 5, etc.) or literary characters, or merely taking
social or political potshots in the Tom Lehrer/Weird Al vein.
"Alternate folk" is that material which is essentially serious and
drawn from general themes or specific works in the SF/fantasy genre.
But not all filk fits these parameters -- with the advent of
relatively inexpensive CD production technology, there's a growing "filk
rock" segment coming into prominence.
Sing Out!
About convention filk circles: enthusiasm, not musical skill, is
the chief prerequisite for attending and participating.
Veteran musicians sit side by side with utter amateurs, and each has
more or less the same chance to perform. Sing-alongs are a
frequent feature, and the songs presented may be brand-new originals
or familiar standards. (Be cautious, however, about asking for
"Banned from Argo" when your turn comes around. Trust
me on this one.)
The best way to explain filk, though, is by example. The
links below connect to an assortment of the 'Net's filk resources.
The list is far from exhaustive, but it should get you started. Or
you can click on the button above to look at some of my own lyrics.