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kenjariI've got to thank ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
epilimnion for introducing me to the Warsaw Village Band. The only time I stopped listening to the CD was to loan it to my boss Suzanne, who is heavily involved with the traditional music scene. The CD is fantastic.
One of the things that the Warsaw Village Band got me thinking about was traditional folk music and what's it's really for and about. I think that there is a certain image of traditional folk music that's been built up, a kind of romanticized image of rural or peasant people singing as they work, or to their children, or to themselves (dreamily beside a stream or a hearth, perhaps), or to commemorate holidays or rites of passage. But the exuberance of the Warsaw Village Band, and the big, raucous, exhilarating sound they give Polish folk music reminds me that there is surely another equally appropriate image: that of an entire village totally getting down and rocking out at some joyous festival or celebration. Everyone just dancing, playing, and singing as if there was no tomorrow, as if their hearts would burst if they didn't get it all out right now. That kind of visceral experience is surely far older than the twentieth century and rock 'n roll. I am reminded that modern youth did not invent this - it's been around for far longer.
epilimnion for introducing me to the Warsaw Village Band. The only time I stopped listening to the CD was to loan it to my boss Suzanne, who is heavily involved with the traditional music scene. The CD is fantastic.One of the things that the Warsaw Village Band got me thinking about was traditional folk music and what's it's really for and about. I think that there is a certain image of traditional folk music that's been built up, a kind of romanticized image of rural or peasant people singing as they work, or to their children, or to themselves (dreamily beside a stream or a hearth, perhaps), or to commemorate holidays or rites of passage. But the exuberance of the Warsaw Village Band, and the big, raucous, exhilarating sound they give Polish folk music reminds me that there is surely another equally appropriate image: that of an entire village totally getting down and rocking out at some joyous festival or celebration. Everyone just dancing, playing, and singing as if there was no tomorrow, as if their hearts would burst if they didn't get it all out right now. That kind of visceral experience is surely far older than the twentieth century and rock 'n roll. I am reminded that modern youth did not invent this - it's been around for far longer.
