Filk Song: Difference between revisions

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''An All The Tropes Filk Song!''}}

[[Self-Demonstrating Article|Self-demonstration]] aside, "filk" is best described as the music of fandom, or at least, the music of the filk community. Songs about SF books or movies, fandom in-jokes, or even just related topics such as computer geeky references are all common sources for filk. And, despite what the self-demonstration says, filk doesn't have to be new words to old music - that's [[To the Tune Of]]. (Nobody would call ''The Star-Spangled Banner'' filk, but the US national anthem uses the tune of ''To Anacreon in Heaven''. The song sometimes considered the "anthem of filk," ''Hope Eyrie,'' has its own original music.)

[[Self-Demonstrating Article|Self-demonstration]] aside, "filk" is best described as the music of fandom, or at least, the music of the filk community. Songs about SF books or movies, fandom in-jokes, or even just related topics such as computer geeky references are all common sources for filk. And, despite what the self-demonstration says, filk doesn't have to be new words to old music - that's [[To the Tune Of]]. (Nobody would call ''The Star-Spangled Banner'' filk, but the US national anthem uses the tune of ''To Anacreon in Heaven''. The song sometimes considered the "anthem of filk," ''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXteSV8rBwY Hope Eyrie]'', has its own original music.)

The term is believed to originate in the 1960s in an early SF fandom 'zine, where the editor didn't do enough copy editing, and typo'd "[[Folk Music]]" as "Filk". The term stuck as a way to describe the peculiar style of musicianship, weird humor, and camaraderie of fandom musicians. (Some in the [[Society for Creative Anachronism]] claim it was actually ''their'' word first, and fandom got it from them; given the heavy overlap between SCAdians and fandom both then and now, it's probably a moot point.)

The term is believed to originate in the 1960s in an early SF fandom 'zine, where the editor didn't do enough copy editing, and typo'd "[[Folk Music]]" as "Filk Music". The term stuck as a way to describe the peculiar style of musicianship, weird humor, and camaraderie of fandom musicians. (Some in the [[Society for Creative Anachronism]] claim it was actually ''their'' word first, and fandom got it from them; given the heavy overlap between SCAdians and fandom both then and now, it's probably a moot point.)

Filk has a few general styles: humorous, serious but positive, and depressing and [[angst]]y. The humor is often, but not always, parody (here defined broadly as "new lyrics," not only the ones referencing the originals —- see [[Satire, Parody, Pastiche]]) -- some filkers are specifically parodists, some do both parody and original, and many only do original work. Some even specialize in "refilking," parodying others' original filk songs.