Filk and Parody - The music of geekery and fandom

EmberLeo

In addition to the folk music, celtic rock 'n' reel, show tunes, protest songs, and everyday radio rock, I grew up with a lot of filk and parody. This is because I grew up attending science fiction and fantasy conventions, and otherwise surrounded by geeks who liked to get creative with lyrics, and sometimes *gasp* original composition, in obscure referential ways.

Filk has a reputation for being cheesy, poorly performed, and poorly produced. It's the Fanfic of music - literally. And in the same way that there's actually well written fanfic and well-drawn fan art out there, there's actually well written and produced Filk as well.

I can't say her singing voice is beautiful, but Leslie Fish has put a lot of Rudyard Kipling's poetry to music, and that's some of my favorite material. Bob Kanefsky writes hilarious comedy filk.

But the two that have been running rampant through my mind for the last week, and thus prompting this thread, are:

Wicked Girls Saving Ourselves:

The song is by Seanan McGuire, sung here by Vixy and Tony. There are other vids that include Seanan's singing, but I think this one has better sound quality.

Mal's Song:

Proof I'm not the only one who gets frustrated when an opening theme song to a good show only has a chorus and no verses. ;p

-E-

EmberLeo

Loving this:

And also this:

Which, amongst dozens of things, references this:

If you're not already familiar with Jonathan Coulton (what?!) here's another favorite of mine (and my favorite vid thereof):

I do not get bored of this genre, yet somehow this thread is nearly empty. Tsk.

-E-

T Hedge Coke

Lot of good filk and pseudo-filk out there. But it's also weirdly determined to keep itself niche, I think, at least as the audience stands today. I've seen people in hysterics (including a grown man dressed as a pirate fighting back tears and trying to punch another guy also in costume) over what is or what isn't filk. What goes too far. What's not folky enough. What fandoms or geek interests can have filk and what can't. Is Voltaire a filk singer (some of the time), or not? And so on.

Not reflective of all the filk audience, naturally. And based solely in my informal familiarity.

EmberLeo

Well, I haven't seen quite that level of passion, but I do have a sense of that uncertainty where Filk ends and "ordinary" parody begins. I consider the requirement to be a solid grounding in at least the applicable form of Fandom, and although I do believe originally Filk was necessarily Amateur art (see also Fanfic) these days there actually do seem to be some full-blown, high-production professional Filkers out there. And yet I'm not aware of any labels willing to pick up a Filker and still call it "Filk".

But because that line is quite blurry no matter which way you try to ask the question, I called this thread "Filk AND Parody" - As far as I'm concerned, Weird Al, Jonathan Coulton, and Tom Lehrer are pretty well Professional Filk (look how they each got started!), but it doesn't matter if you disagree, their music still fits here for sure. :)

Speaking of Tom Lehrer, you can't ignore the classics:

(Also attempted by Daniel Radcliff)

-E-

Mono

Parody artists were a MAJOR thing in my household growing up. Just about every long car trip was soundtracked by Tom Lehrer, Weird Al, Stan Freburg, and various Doctor Demento mixtapes.  Thanks for this thread, it's bringing back lots of happy memories

I think that my brothers and I actually wore out a tape with Weird Al's "Yoda" on it (which is *totally* Filk. I think).

My brother sang "Pollution"in front of our whole school when he was about 9. Even as a kid I was a bit uncomfortable with the dodgy Spanish accent, but I guess it makes sense in the context of the song?

And while we're on the classics, there's always "Hello Muddah Hello Faddah"!

(Edited because the embedding didn't work, hope the links do!)
[Ed: Fixed it up for ya ;)]

EmberLeo

Mono said: Weird Al's "Yoda" on it (which is *totally* Filk. I think).

See what I mean?!

"He said I know Darth Vader's really got you annoyed
But remember, if you kill him then you'll be unemployed!"

-E-

grant

I remember a couple of years ago stumbling on the world of Harry Potter indie folk... it wasn't really filk, per se, since it was all original songs & melodies (as far as I could tell). There was one singer who I really liked. What was her name? Her name?

Geez.

Hmm.

I probably posted her on blip.fm shortly before they started giving me the trouble.

THIS:

Roonil Wazlib.

Apparently her real name is Molly Newman.

grant

(And, as usual, the songs I like best are her covering other Wizard Rock people, apparently. I always seem to like covers, even if the originals are way off my radar.)

T Hedge Coke

Once saw a justification of Deirdre Flint's Food as filk that just warmed my heart: it's about her fandom. Which is both cheating and quite on point in the spirit.

And, on the Voltaire front, I'm using USS Make Shit Up to self-motivate right now. A lot.

(I hope that youtube video is decent. I can't play the things from here.)

EmberLeo

grant said: it wasn't really filk, per se, since it was all original songs & melodies (as far as I could tell).

That just means it was Original Filk instead of Parody Filk. There's plenty of original filk out there.

Filk and Parody are a venn diagram, not a sub and super set -E-

Evan

Best Pet Shop Boys parody ever:

Mono

The JCSS videos in the show tunes thread made me remember this:

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