Entry 4

     After reading ch 21 in Nettle a couple of weeks ago there were a few things that were applicable to my project. I just never got around to posting them until now. This chapter deals with the various traditions but I am most focused on what is has to say about folk. On page 293 Nettle describes that one of the questions regarding folk music is " weather folk songs (and, by implication, other music in 'oral' tradition) are created by individuals or by the 'folk'". i thought this to be a very good point and even an interview question, because I have seen many instances where one individual writes a song by themselves and records it solo with one instrument, but while performing with a bad the same song, it completely changes with the ideas and styles of the other musicians.

For instance here is a video of Conor Oberst playing a simple song by himself. Lets call it the 'original'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8__qjhPX1ac

and here is the same song with the whole band. The band contributes how they wish and are not told what to play by Conor, so it it and individual's music or the communities music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWPbhZiCrd8

Of course one might argue that the band doesn't constitute a 'community' but I will get to that in my next blog (when I don't have to get to work in 30 min).

Nettle also describes that "in order for a piece to be transmitted intact, its content must remain while its style may change"(294). I think the two videos above are a great example of that.

This is pretty much a reminder post so I can elaborate on certain points later.  I recently watched two  documentaries (One of my Kind, which in the title already points to a communal theme, and Spend and Evening with Saddle Creek) dealing with Conor Oberst and his multiple musical projects. Using some of Nettle's point made in ch 21 I'll describe how they can be found in these documentaries and how the musicians within them view themselves within that setting.