Celtic Thunder, What if the song's from the New World

[flatlander dave]

I just heard Celtic Radio play a Celtic Thunder track that was an American 1960's song. I'm of the opinion that just because a Celtic lad sings the song, it isn't automatically Celtic music. What does the community think?

Flatlander Dave

[Vixie]

I agree. I love CT, but a lot of their songs (especially with the new show) have nothing at all to do with Celtic music. Maybe they should change their name to "Thunder"

[heartsong]

There is nothing that says a Celtic group can't perform non-Celtic music. The Celtic Tenors perform songs that range from Classical to Pop to Celtic.

Celtic Thunder adds they're own unique touch to the music and that touch is rooted in Celtic music. What Celtic Thunder does is introduce people to music they may never have heard before, and there is nothing wrong with that.

[flatlander dave]

Heartsong: no argument about your point, but should a non-celtic song be played on CelticRadio.net just because the band is Celtic? That's my point.

[Robert Phoenix]

I picked up the last CTfor $10 bucks and only liked two songs on there. They sing great and their performances are top notch but I think the one who picks what songs they are going to do should be slapped-hard. It's a misrepresentaion of a culture when the band or singer brands themselves as singers of its cultures songs and then 95 to 98 percent of a CD isn't of that culture. There are some songs I don'i care to hear out of any artist anymore and it seems that Celtic Women and Celtic Thunder managed to pick them everytime. Great singers and musicians-yes. Good examples of Irish music -not so much .

[heartsong]

They may not be performing the music in the traditional way, but they are showing that the Celtic people can evolve and keep up with the times. I sometimes wonder about some of the other artists on this site, but the term Celtic Music has changed to encompass more than just the Roots/Traditional type of music.

Who gets to determine what exactly is a "Celtic" song? Many songs change meanings when different groups change them to fit their style. For example I love Steve McDonald's song "Throw Your Arms Around Me," and it sounds/feels Celtic to me, but when I looked it up online I found out it was a Pearl Jam song (written by an Australian, so maybe it is Celtic). It sounds completely different. Maybe we should add Pearl Jam to the request system since they play a "Celtic" song?

[Aaediwen]

I see two different questions here. As for how the poll is phrased, calling a song Celtic just because it's a Celt singing. No. A quick YouTube search will turn up covers of Led Zeppelin and Metallica on Harp, and although these wonderful covers are granted a Celtic feel, they're far from being Celtic tunes.

On the other end, there is no rule that says a Celtic artist can't record some non-Celtic CDs. (let alone individual tracks) And even have those tracks fit in a Celtic playlist.

I discovered Nightwish on Highlander Radio because of the Celtic Circle CDs. Most of the artists on that are pop or metal musicians (Nightwish, Within Temptation, Sarah McLachlan, Vangelis), and the tracks on the CD are not traditional (Our Farewell, Who Wants to Live Forever, Sleeping Sun). The case could be made that this is not really a Celtic CD. But I will say that listening to it, you get a very Celtic vibe from it, and I do classify it as Celtic as it does feel quite Celtic by nature.

It has been my experience that when I hear Celtic artists mix in as much pop as they do, especially with the more commercial feel of Celtic Woman, or Celtic Crossroads, that they provide a bridge to Celtic music for those who might only think of it as something to play while drinking green beer on March 17th. At the same time, they are giving back to both traditions. Folk music grows by interpritation, and popular music feeds off these influences as well to evolve and form new sounds (I'd love some CDs of Classical recordings done as metal, there are some awesome YouTube vids out there)

A Celtic artist recording a non-Celtic tune does not make it a Celtic tune, but recording the cover doesn't make the artist no longer Celtic either. And if they start recording CDs that don't even feel Celtic? well that's what we call a crossover Loreena McKennitt went full on Middle Eastern for a while, but is Ancient Muse any less a Celtic album than Parallel Dreams or Elemental?

Trying to define music opens up a broad can of worms because you then have to determine what defines that type of music. In order to make this doable, we have had to define such narrow criteria that we now have thousands of genres of music. Good luck trying to define something as broad as Celtic, let alone the parent Genres of World and Folk.