engleski

Where does the folk music end and popular begin? Issues from field research in Croatia

In this paper I would like to present some of the frequently asked questions I get as an ethnomusicologist. During field research for my MA thesis in Hrvatsko zagorje region of northwestern Croatia, I tried to find some answers about the region's folk instruments ensembles, and I visited some of the local "festivals of folk music". Because most of the songs performed there were newly composed (both lyrics and music), it was, in some cases, hard to find clear distinctions between folk music, as the people from that region call it, and popular (entertainment) music. But, when the musicians from that region present their "home" to "outsiders", they usually do it through stage performances of "old music and dances", which are in most cases the choreographed ones. As an ethnomusicologist, I'm often asked to evaluate which of these "stage performances" are more authentic. But, how to judge authenticity? Why are these performances in the eyes of people closer to "folk" music than the "new" songs which really are performed in all kind of gatherings, especially informal ones? Why do they call these new songs "folk"? In this presentation I would like to raise a question which lurked and often resurged in my own research, that is – how can we ethnomusicologists (and should we) decide where folk music ends and popular begins.

folk music; popular music

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