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| Celtic fusion | |
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| Stylistic origins |
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| Cultural origins | 1970s, United Kingdom, Ireland and United States |
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Celtic fusion is an umbrella term for any modern music which incorporates influences considered "Celtic", orCeltic music which incorporates modern music. It is a syncretic musical tradition which borrows freely from the perceived "Celtic" musical traditions of all theCeltic nations, as well as from all styles of popular music, it is thus sometimes associated with thePan-Celtic movement. Celtic fusion may or may not include authentic traditional music from any one tradition under the Celtic umbrella, but its common characteristic is the inspiration by Celtic identity.
The oldest musical tradition which fits under the label of Celtic fusion originated in the rural American south in the early colonial period and incorporatedScottish,Scots-Irish,Irish, andAfrican American influences. Variously referred to asroots music, American folk music, orold-time music, this tradition has exerted a strong influence on all forms of American music, includingcountry,blues, androck and roll. The connections between traditional Scottish and Irish music and Rock music are deep and go back to the origins of American music. As Elvis Costello put it:
"I started with rock n' roll and... then you start to take it apart like a child with a toy and you see there's blues and there's country... Then you go back from country into American music... and you end up in Scotland and Ireland eventually."[1]
Another manifestation of this syncretic tendency emerged inNew York City in the 1890s, as bands performing traditional Irish music for the largeIrish immigrant community there began incorporatingbig band influences, adding brass and reed instruments and performingquicksteps,foxtrots, and other popular contemporary dance tunes.
More recently, there has been a flowering of several distinct genres of Celtic fusion. These can be roughly broken down as follows.
The fusion of Celtic music andreggae is a hybrid started by the bandEdward II and The Red Hot Polkas, an example of Celticdub, The Trojans, an example of Celticska, and followed on by PaddyRasta, an example of Celticfolk reggae, and recently The Celtic Reggae Revolution who have done it to good effect. Other collaborations includeThe Chieftains andZiggy Marley, Sharon Shannon and Bréag.
The fusion ofrock and Celtic music is perhaps the least surprising of the modern hybrids, since rock is partially based on "roots" music, which was originally based on a fusion of African, Celtic, and many other traditions. Modern Celtic rock acts likeThe Waterboys, Jethro Tull/ Ian Anderson, Rathkeltair,Alan Stivell,Gaelic Storm,Sinéad O'Connor, The Cranberries, The Proclaimers,Red Cardell,Peatbog Faeries, Lenahan, Lordryk,Croft No. 5,Enter the Haggis, Callanach,The Dreaming,Shooglenifty,Spirit of the West, the American Rogues, Homeland,Ashley MacIsaac,Mudmen,Wolfstone,The Paperboys, andGreat Big Sea, and many others have proven the genre's vitality.
Since rock music is so diverse and is influenced by virtually every other genre, the sounds of these groups vary considerably; they include everything from straight-ahead classic rock with traditional instruments to traditional songs played with rock "attitude".
Celticpop artists such asThe Corrs,Nolwenn Leroy, and Gwennyn incorporate pop music elements into traditional tunes.
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Celtic punk was essentially invented byThe Pogues in the early 1980s and immediately gained popularity following the release of their first album in 1985. It is one of the best established of the modern Celtic fusion genres, and generally includes drums, bass, guitar, and fiddle, sometimes with tin whistle, bodhran, or accordion. The sound is typically fast with aggressive lyrics, rock beats, and melodies.
Bands in this genre includeFlogging Molly,Dropkick Murphys,The Real McKenzies,Neck, Smiting Shillelagh,Flatfoot 56,The Tossers, The Vandon Arms, The Molly Maguires,Mutiny, andBlack 47 (who also incorporate hip hop influences). The genre is most popular in Ireland, Scotland,England, the United States, and Canada.
Punks singing in Celtic languages began to emerge in the late 1970s in Wales, where groups such as Ail Symudiad (Second Movement) and Y Trwynau Coch (The Red Noses) began performing in fast-paced idioms reminiscent of the Jam; a rather harder sound was adopted byYr Anhrefn (Chaos) in the 1980s.[citation needed] The 2000s saw in Scotland the emergence of several Gaelic-language punk bands, such asMill a h-Uile Rud and the genre is also represented inBrittany with the band calledLes Ramoneurs de Menhirs.
The first Celtic-identifiedhip hop group to gain mainstream notoriety wasHouse of Pain, aLos Angeles based hip hop group which incorporated rhymes about theIrish-American experience into their music. With a few exceptions, however, their actual instrumentation did not incorporate traditional "Celtic" instruments, though they did use time signatures typical of Jigs on several songs - a major deviation in a hip hop market where virtually everything is done in 4/4 time.
Marxman, an Irish-Jamaican hip hop group, whose explicitlynationalist andMarxist politics gained them notoriety and infamy in the United Kingdom in the 1980s, incorporated traditional instruments into several songs on their first album, but largely abandoned them on their second album for a moreelectronica- andblues-oriented sound that would later form the basis for the emergence oftrip hop.
Sinéad O'Connor contributed vocals to several of Marxman's songs and even tried her hand at rapping on her 1994 albumUniversal Mother with a track about theGreat Irish Famine (1845-1849).
Starting in 1998Manau, a French hip hop group ofBreton origin, created the first truly consistent fusion of Celtic music and hip hop in two critically acclaimed albums incorporating a wide range of traditional instruments and melodies and combining them with hip hop beats. In one of their songs they used part of an arrangement of a traditional tune (Tri Martolod) byAlan Stivell, and were subsequently sued by him for copyright infringement.
1998 also marked the release ofSeanchai and The Unity Squad's second album, Rebel Hip Hop.[2] The sound was equal parts folk-punk, rock, and old-school hip hop and marked the first time Celtic hip hop had been performed exclusively with live instruments instead of samples. The album was selected as the Hotpress "Album of the Year" and received positive reviews but failed to break into the mainstream. The band has released 4 more albums since and are still active, playing primarily at Rocky Sullivan's in NYC which is owned by Chris Byrne, the band leader.
More recently,Emcee Lynx, a hip hop artist fromOakland,California of primarilyScottish andIrish descent who is best known for hisanarchist politics andanti-war activism, has incorporated samples of traditional instruments into his music. His song "I'm a Celt", from his 2003 album "The UnAmerican LP", marked his first foray into overt fusion; combining samples of a traditional Irish harp with bass, drum, and lyrics about the Highland Clearances, the famines, and growing up as a Celt in America. In 2005 that evolved into a full band,Beltaine's Fire. They played a live fusion of hip hop, funk, rock, and Celtic music. They released three full-length albums and their biggest performance was at the KVMR Celtic Festival in 2008, an event which drew over 10,000 people.[3]
The definition of 'Celtic Hip Hop' is contested. Some people use it to refer to all hip hop by self-identified Celts; Ammunition, an Irish rapper who runshttps://web.archive.org/web/20080420184447/http://celtichiphop.net/ is one pillar in this camp, while most critics use it to refer to music that actually incorporates traditional instrumentation and melodies. Rappers who spit primarily over conventional hip hop beats and self-identify with Celtic hip hop includeRob Kelly,Emcee Lynx (as a solo artist), Terrawrizt, MetaBeats, Collie, Scattabrainz, Lineage, Corvid and many more.[4]
Celtic New Age artists such asEnya,Clannad,Afro Celt Sound System,Catya Maré,Iona, andGary Stadler incorporate traditional melodies and lyrics with synths and pads to create a mellow relaxed fusion that has proven highly marketable. Enya, for example, is one of the best-selling musicians in the world.
The word first entered the English language as slang and was used to describe anyone who was giving a passionate performance, primarily athletes at first. It was only later that the spelling was standardized as jazz and it became associated with a specific musical genre.
The music we call jazz today originated in African American communities and evolved out of American roots music and theblues and often included instruments like Fiddle and Mandolin that are now more commonly associated with folk or roots music. Modern acts such asClannad,Nightnoise,Melanie O'Reilly, andRaggle Taggle orRoland Becker (in the eighties) combine Celtic music with jazz. The jazz can range from thebig band swing style to thesmooth jazz style.
O'Reilly's musical partner has a side project called Temro[5][6] that improvises over Irish traditional music in sophisticated harmonic and rhythmic environments.
Ensemble Ériu is anIrish band which blend the minimalism and improvisatory spirit of jazz around Irish traditional melodies.[7]
Norman&Corrie, comprising Scottish drummerCorrie Dick and multi-instrumentalistNorman Willmore of Peatbog Faeries perform Shetlandic fiddle music reimagined as contemporary electronic-fringed jazz. The band released their debut album Twa Double Doubles in 2024.[8]
The genre of Celtic electronica blends traditional Celtic influences with modern electronic music. Artists such asMartyn Bennett,Lorne Cousin,Mouth Music, Mark Saul,Saint Sister andValtos (band) whose backgrounds are in traditional Celtic music tend to favor traditional instruments, melodies, and rhythms, but augment them with drum machines and electronic sounds. Others, likeDagda,Brigid Boden andNiteworks approach the fusion from a background in electronic music that eschews traditional instruments and incorporates traditional melodies played on synths into a New Age-influencedtrance sound.Peatbog Faeries have experimented with Celtic electronica, mainly onFaerie Stories.
During the 1990s, a subgenre offolk metal emerged that combinedheavy metal music with Celtic music. The pioneers of the genre wereSkyclad,Cruachan,Primordial andWaylander.
Many Celtic fusion artists integrate musical traditions from all over the world into their sound. The clearest example of this isAfro Celt Sound System, the members of which bring to the band strong backgrounds in either African or Irish musical tradition. The Irish fusion groupSkelpin incorporates Spanish flamenco, Middle Eastern, and American soul elements and instruments into its music.Delhi 2 Dublin[1], a band based in Canada, is known for fusing Irish andIndian music.Salsa Celtica is an 11-member "world fusion" project based inEdinburgh, Scotland that mixes salsa with Scottish bagpiping and world influences.[9] Other artists such asLoreena McKennitt,Red Cardell, the American Rogues, andCatya Maré take inspiration from numerous diverse traditions around the world, although their focus may be on Celtic music.
Other established hybrids include bands like, again, Celtic Reggae Revolution, PaddyRasta, Pubside Down, and (again) Sinéad O'Connor.
As might be expected from musicians playing a style of music defined by its fusion of disparate elements, many bands combine multiple styles.Shooglenifty, for instance, incorporates reggae, rock, and jazz into their musical style;Croft no Five did the same with rock and funk. Bands likeNa’Bodach are stylistically disparate between works on the same album, where a rock influenced song may be followed by funk or bluegrass thereafter.Rare Air, an '80s Canadian band, had two bagpipes, with rock guitar and Caribbean-influenced drums.
"Irish Folk, Trad and Blues: A Secret History" by Colin Harper (2005) covers Horslips, The Pogues, Planxty and others.Cunliffe, Barry, ‘The Celts: A Very Short Introduction’ (Oxford, 2003). Maier, Bernhard, ‘The Celts: A history from earliest times to the present’, K. Windle trans, (Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 2003).
