Research Guides
Seattle Singers, Songwriters, and the Unheard Folk Music
By Matthew Pouw
June 7th, 2012
After the grunge-rock era, Seattle became known globally as a hub of music and popular culture. Cited often as a capitol of music, labeling music with the “made in Seattle” branding gave a specific appeal and sense of authenticity when marketed. In recent years, some have dared to say that there is a new “Seattle sound” emerging – one that is characterized by acoustic instruments, melodic vocals, and lush harmonies. Many are quick to label this under the “folk” genre or sometimes “indie-folk” or “folk-pop.” “Seattle sound” or not, underneath the commercial and popular culture of Seattle music, there is a history and rich passion for all kinds of folk music.
Seattle Rock and the “New Seattle Sound”
Ask anyone what they think of when they imagine Seattle music and the answer will probably be grunge. Born out of the early 90s as a child to punk and metal rock communities in the locales in and around Seattle, grunge quickly became the city’s musical banner (Humphrey). As much an image, style, and commodity as a descriptor for music, grunge became a global movement with enough cultural force to get Seattle noticed in the global music marketplace. Thanks to popular music publications, people as far from Seattle as Europe started to associate the city with distortion, fuzzy guitars, flannel, long johns, and a rural aesthetic.
The word “grunge” became a label. It described an entire collection of music, items, and an aesthetic that was commonly packaged together. Fashion magazines and mainstream periodicals fueled the hype that surrounded the word and consequently the Seattle scene. It became extremely marketable. This hype around a culture surrounding a kind of music is an example of how a label (like “grunge”) and an accompanying cohesive aesthetic can define the perception of a scene (Pray et al.).
In many ways, the ideas of a Seattle scene and the power of such a movement are still engrained in our recent memories. Although Seattle has much to offer in terms of music, with rich hip-hop and jazz cultures, the perception from the outside of a characteristic “Seattle sound” is often defined by what is playing on local radio station KEXP or what comes out of Seattle’s own Sub Pop records. Recently much of the music coming out of these two Northwest icons has been of a common grain. Jonathan Zwickel authored a piece in the Seattle Times in 2008 entitled, “The new Seattle sound is pretty, pastoral, and melodic.” In it, Zwickel cautiously posits that there is a collective new defining sound to Seattle music. With bands like Fleet Foxes, the Cave Singers, the Moondoggies, and Poor Moon, there is a seeming connection in a mellower, toned-back, and acoustic form of genre (Zwickel). Many label this under the folk genre or add any number of descriptors they deem necessary (ex. folk-pop, folk-rock, indie-folk, new-folk, etc.). Grouping this as a new “Seattle sound” may be a result of our inherent desire to classify things or as a means to forming a marketable product.
Folk Music? Defining Traditional Folk and Popular Folk
Popular folk music resides on the surface of Seattle’s image, but underneath lies a network of musicians who focus on traditional work, often ignoring or rejecting the popular genre as not authentic. As part of popular culture, popular folk music can’t help but be awash with commercialism and the need to sell. Indeed, many popular folk musicians are able to make a living touring on this wave of cultural demand for their art. But usually musicians are musicians for the music, as many will be quick to say there is no guarantee of financial success or even stability as a music-maker in the industry. This love for the music is what drives many local musicians to pursue their art, popular or not.
Popular folk (or however you wish to classify it) may have a specific modern style, but it is built off of a rich history of singer/songwriters that point back to traditional folk music. Expression of one’s self, an era, or events through vocal and acoustic instrumental means is old enough that many musical pieces survived without our knowledge of their authors. This is what director Bob Nelson of the Pacific Northwest Folklore Society deems as a traditional folk song. Nelson is well-versed in traditional folk music and asserts that the term “folk music” refers only to music shared collectively by people and not attributed to an author – in other words, the traditional pieces that are attributed to an anonymous source.
These pieces have been handed down through the generations of folk musicians. In most cases, the origins of these songs have been lost. As a result, the music has become a music of the people. This definition of “folk music” directly conflicts with the genre “folk” labeled onto popular local acts. Indeed, Nelson recounted to me the tongue-in-cheek tale of a young musician who introduced a song as a folk song he wrote just last week. The irony in the perceived misuse of the term “folk song” is a common source of mirth and frustration to local musicians like Nelson.
Indeed Nelson has successfully avoided interest in the popular genre throughout his musical life. In the days of Elvis Presley, he chose searching the stacks of the public library for traditional verses over the celebrity appeal and star power of idols like Presley. The trend continued for him with the explosion of British rock musicians The Beatles. As for musicians which popular culture would remember as folk legends such as Bob Dylan, Nelson poses that Dylan’s rock-ifying and contemporary popularization of folk music was not folk music at all. Instead he relegates it once again to the genre of the “popular.”
This particular view of the popular form is not new, nor necessarily novel. Though less harsh, Nelson’s views on popular music may share some ties to the theory of popular music posed by musicologist Theodor Adorno in his analysis of the modern industry of culture. Adorno posits that popular music is enmeshed with the commercial culture industry. He views the popular form as a product – a commodity shaped into a specific form by corporate hands for the sole purpose of being consumed by the masses around the world that indulge in popular culture. These notions hearken back to the hype surrounding Seattle’s grunge period. Clearly, grunge became a product for the masses just as Adorno theorized of the popular form.
Adorno’s theory does not end with only this note. He continues with his key concepts of standardization and pseudo-individualization. Standardization describes the interchangeability of popular form. Sections of pieces can be switched out for one another. Upon musical study of many popular songs, it can be said that most examples of popular form takes on a standardized organization. Verses, choruses, and bridges are all simply pieces of a standard form that has been utilized and re-used countless times by the pop-culture industry to essentially resell the same product to consumers. The only differences that these popular pieces can make claim to are due to “pseudo-individualized” characteristics. Differences in details in instrumentation, lyrical content, mood, key, and more retell the same popular form in a different light and thus make it appealing. Adorno claims that these differences are superficial and, by nature, misleading.
The underlying concept in Adorno’s theory seems to be that the popular form lacks seriousness and authenticity that can be respected. If a music is made or processed through commercial vendors, how can it be pure and untouched by the goal of making money? A great proponent of classical and avant-garde music, Adorno asserts that capitalist corporate industry conditions a particular ear for popular music. It has conditioned society to a point where the popular form serves as a temporary panacea to the unfulfillment of happiness and promise in the lives of the masses (Strinati 64-69).
Though it is true that the popular form is enmeshed with the culture industry (and thus pervades much of the modern age), it is unfair to dismiss all of music outside the realm of “traditional seriousness” as fluff. In the defense of some popular music, many pieces were created with the sole intent of personal expression by artists, only to have them distributed through commercial means later. Should this take away any authenticity? Without the creator’s intent to write music with the purpose of feeding the ears of the masses with a standardized product or temporary relief from mundaneness, Adorno’s theory falters. It should also be noted that most of the classical era’s pieces have organizational form as well. It could be argued that these forms were a popular form of their era – standardization of the past. Classical pieces were not free from the constraints of commercial endeavors either, since many composers including Johann Sebastian Bach were employed in royal courts or by commission.
Though much less aggressive in his stance, Nelson’s view on popular music isn’t uncommon. In Nelson’s case it is a simple love for the traditional folk music over the popular form that compels him. Adorno’s preference for seriousness and purity in music, untainted by commercial modes of processing is a noble one. In the end though, arguing that the intent behind creation of a music (whether a product of an individual or a collective society) is what defines the music is a limited viewpoint. If a piece survives centuries into the future, will we remember it as Adorno would? That it was of a popular form and thus devoid of true individuality? Any commercial intent will probably be forgotten through the years and all that will be left to define the piece is the music itself.
Playing the Past: the Hootenanny
Bob Nelson is not the only director of the Pacific Northwest Folk Society. He shares the responsibilities with Stew Hendrickson, a professor emeritus of the University of Washington. The two put on an annual concert series, with Nelson heading events in Everett and Hendrickson in Seattle. They feature many prominent folk artists and some local talents as well. Their venues range from the Everett public library to bookstores and coffeehouses. Founded in 1953 by Walt Robertson, Don Firth, and others, the Pacific Northwest Folk Society has grown to include many of the area’s folk music enthusiasts. From professional musicians to those interested in archival and preservation of the music, it is apparent that a shared goal is the passing on of a rich past of music.
Local folk musicians in the Pacific Northwest Folk Society meet together regularly to play in a kind of jam session fondly known as a hootenanny. Informal and casual by nature, the hootenannies (shortened to a “hoot”) are usually held in someone’s living room. Musicians sit in a circle or open formation and casually play whatever songs they wish to contribute. Sometimes arrangements are done to play solo, other times duets or trios have been practiced beforehand and are presented to the group. Even other times, a musician will begin a tune and find that everyone joins in to fill out the arrangement.
Instruments played by musicians in these hoots differed quite a bit. Almost all of the instruments are stringed. Guitars, banjos, violins, and ukuleles are often paired with more uncommon instruments such as the hammered dulcimer or even spoons as a form of percussion. Stew Hendrickson hosted a hoot on May 18th in his home which featured traditional American folk songs, Irish ballads, and some more contemporary singer/songwriter material such as Kate Wolf’s “Here in California.” Indeed, the boundary between folk songs created under the umbrella of popular culture and the traditional songs is one that not all local folk musicians have a problem with. Though a clear addendum to genre may be appreciated (ex. folk-pop vs. traditional folk), there was not a general sentiment against popular music.
At the Hendrickson hoot, filming or recording was not allowed. Hoots are meant to be fun and relaxing – “a chance for musicians to let their hair down,” as Nelson would say. Field recordings of such material, though interesting as they may be, would take away from the spirit of the event and put musicians on edge. A musician’s persona can be affected by the knowledge of being recorded. Especially nowadays, with the presence of such multimedia sharing internet websites such as Youtube, fear of being recorded and potentially posted to the internet where one does not wish to have his or her work shown is a very real and current problem for many musicians.
Archival of Local Folk Music
Aside from playing folk music, Nelson is also interested in its archival. He has collected and characterized about three hundred reel to reel tapes and more than four hundred cassette tapes of material. Nelson began by recording much of the material himself or collecting it from fellow musicians and enthusiasts. From there the process turned into one of organizing and characterizing the music recorded. In addition, extra care had to be given to maintain the physical vessels that the music was contained within, including cleaning and repairs for optimal playback. Finally, the material was digitized. Nelson has donated an initial part of his large collection to the University of Washington Libraries with the intent of keeping the music archived for the future.
An archive is a site usually dedicated in storage, preservation, and access to copies of material (Archives 1-4). In the case of music, material is quite plentiful and the archivist runs into a quandary. To what extent is the work he or she is preserving representative of the greater scene of music? On what merits should one song be chosen for archival over another?
Actually, archival of local folk music is but a further step in a community that has always valued preservation of its art. Passed down by retellings, print, and performances, traditional folk music is but an example of preserving material through oral and printed history. Though a modern day performance of a ballad is likely very different from the original version, the work and the art have not faded from the earth. Did only the strong songs survive? Or the most significant? An example that Nelson cites as the latter is the ballad of the “Mountain Meadows Massacre,” telling the story of the massacre of settlers passing through Utah by previously settled Mormons in 1857. It may not be the most popular song, but the ballad characterizes a significant historical event and was thus passed on in oral tradition (Toelken 169). In much the same way, archival of such music must take into account both the popularity of a piece and the significance.
Though selection of material to be archived is largely a subjective activity, inclusion in an archive is based on multiple factors. Potentially, the recording could also be a unique recording of a known artist. If it is the last of its kind, there is good reason to try to preserve it so as to prevent losing it to time.
Nowadays one can record themselves with ease. Advancements in technology in recent decades have made recording commonplace. With increased ease of access to recording equipment, one can assume that there are more recordings being made as well. How will the significant individual pieces in these recordings be preserved and recognized in the years to come? The answer may not be all that far.
Coinciding with the increased abundance in recording equipment and technology, the sharing of information has also exploded in recent years. The network of the internet hosts media and social networking sites like Youtube, Soundcloud, and Myspace. Users can post media content for commercial, recreational, or educational purposes. In many ways, publication of material on these sites is archival of such material. Though not housed in a physical archival space, the music or video material is preserved in a format that is extremely accessible to the public. A single search on Youtube for Fleet Foxes or for Pete Seeger will garner many copies of live shows or interviews.
It is widely acknowledged that songwriters may have issues of ownership and retribution with Youtube. Sharing material without the author or creator’s consent seems to be common on the popular site, and musicians can suffer from not getting the credit or financial retribution that they feel they deserve. These issues of control over intellectual property introduce another quagmire of questions and ethical dilemmas (Rights 74, 77). For the Seattle traditional folk scene, however, the spirit of sharing is generally positive to such sharing websites. After all, traditional folk music is music shared by people and played by various musicians. Still a certain fear to publication without consent exists concerning Youtube, and rightly so.
If Youtube and Soundcloud could act as primary archives of the future, one can hardly help but wonder what will happen to the physical archives of today. With the national economy in a slump, funding for such institutions can be hard to come by and many archives are forced to make compromises in their activity to stay afloat. Funding was cited as the largest problem for all archives in recent archival article, "Archives and the Future" (Archives 8, 9). A turn from physical archives to digital archives may affect many processes that we are familiar with. In Peter Pierre’s “The academic library: a post-modern Lazarus?” Pierre posits that the recent focus in digital information from physical books and resources is changing the face of libraries as hubs of expertise and knowledge to centers for search engines. The librarian of the future may no longer be the respected professional who is in touch with the physical material in his or her workspace, but an information technologist who teaches library-goers how to find the material through a computer (Pierre, 148-54). Embracing the information age may pose a similar situation for archives.
The Future
Folk music is not an endangered species. It is a tried and true form of music and of storytelling, whether as a performance of an ancient song or as a new incarnation built on the similar themes and motifs. The multiple folk revival cycles that have brought folk music to and from popular culture all speak to the music’s relatability and appeal. There is no looming threat for folk music as a whole, though there are the individual tales and ballads that were sung and passed down to the past generations that have the potential to be lost in the shuffle of history. Luckily, as more youth become interested in popular folk music, they may also stumble upon the traditional music hiding a great history underneath the blanket of pop on the airwaves. With contributions like the Nelson Folk Music Collection at the University of Washington and the work of organizations like the Pacific Northwest Folklife Society, preservation of many pieces of material is well accounted for. As for the new-folk music coming out of the area, social internet sites will provide an easy stepping stone into preserving and accessing music generated now and in the years to come.
Bibliography:
"Archives and the Future." In Archives for the Future: Global Perspectives on Audiovisual Archives in the 21st Century. 2004. pp. 1-4, 8, 9. Retrieved June 6th, 2012, from http://seagullindia.com/archive/chapter01.pdf
Humphrey, Clark. Rock Music -- Seattle [the 1990s]. 2000. Retrieved June 6th, 2012, from http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=2374
Pierre, Peter. "The academic library: a post-modern Lazarus?" 2005. Australian Library Journal.54 (2): 148-54. Retrieved June 6th, 2012 from http://www.alia.org.au/publishing/alj/54.2/full.text/pierre.html
Pray, Doug, et al. Hype! Los Angeles: Republic Pictures. 2004.
“Rights, Intellectual Property and Archives Today." In Archives for the Future: Global Perspectives on Audiovisual Archives in the 21st Century. 2004. pp. 74, 77. Retrieved June 6th, 2012, from http://seagullindia.com/archive/chapter03.pdf
Strinati, Dominic. An introduction to theories of popular culture. London: Routledge: pp. 64- 69. 1995.
Toelken, J. Barre. Western Folklore. Vol. 18, No. 2, Utah Number (Apr., 1959), pp. 169. Western States Folklore Society. Retrieved June 7th, 2012, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1496486
Zwickel, Jonathan. The new Seattle sound is pretty, pastoral and mellow. The Seattle Times. June 2008. Retrieved June 7th, 2012, from http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/musicnightlife/2004448118_softrock01.html