To the Roots

The term “going digital” can have some odd associations. Though it really only Refers to content stored on a computerized device, there can be some peculiar assumptions made about what digital content is and should be. While there have been new genres and formats created, or at least inspired by the new, digital infrastructure (blogs, vlogs, podcasting etc.), there is also a good deal of content in traditional styles that are available mostly, if not exclusively, online. In such cases, the web is mostly being used as a promotional tool as opposed to the platform itself. Much like when music videos were broadcast on traditional television to promote artists, web streaming being traditional television's logical successor, while live performances and records were the primary commodity. Now it tends to be the individual songs. There are many of the same marketing tactics used but rather than physical CDs, according to recording industry insiders such as Music Engineer Glenn Fricker, the primary mode of selling music is online in the form of MP3 downloads.



An element that stands out in the music currently available online, is how staunchly traditional some of it is. At times to the point of the anachronistic. There is the jocular, such as the “Pirate Metal” stylings of the Scottish band Alestorm, which are basically high-powered sea-shanties, and the partially a Capella, Celtic Folk pieces of Ye Banished Privateers, many of which are literal sea-shanties.



On the darker end there is Russian Folk Metal band, Arkona famous for seamlessly blending Russian Folk music of the sort that got Stravinsky in trouble at the premier of Rite of Spring and Death Metal in tracks such as “Yarilo”. A counter-intuitive combination on par with peanut butter and chocolate.


Even deeper into the roots is Patty Gurdy. Primarily the hurdy-gurdy player and second vocalist for the 6-piece German Folk Metal band Storm Seeker (which also includes a keyboardist and cellist), Ms. Gurdy also has an active successful online presence on YouTube. No one-trick pony, her online content is a buffet of cool, combining several instruction videos on the hurdy-gurdy as well as solo performances and collaborations with other YouTube musicians and members of her band, such as the acoustic version of the band’s song “The Longing” she did with the band's aforementioned cellist.
There are also acts such as Faun. With a name referring to a mythical creature and using instruments that pre-date electricity by hundreds of years, all manner of descriptors can, and have, been used for their music, some of them more accurate than others. Though the fact is, the style of music they tend to do is so old that it pre-date the concept of genre itself. There is also a strong element of pre-Christian European paganism in the band's themes, instrumentation and visuals which point to a firmly Medievalist orientation.


Speaking of Medieval, if sheer numbers are anything to go by, one of the most popular songs to cover on YouTube is “Herr Mannelig”. First published in 1877, Herr Mannelig is a generally a Cappella Swedish Folk Ballad so old no one knows who originally wrote it. Yet type “Herr Mannelig” into the search bar and witness the seven pages (20 videos per page) of people doing variations on it. “Variation” really being the right word, the artist involved ranging from the solo Folk Singer Alsuna to a Symphonic Heavy Metal band called Ranthiel.



Despite the propaganda from the self-interested and misinformed, the move to digital is not completely destroying traditional art forms. In fact, in some ways they are helping them survive.