Final Thoughts

It’s been awhile since my last post but I’ve been thinking a lot about my final musings on this genre and why such a small group are so keen to distance themselves from one another based on their location.
Just to give an example that shows the desire for distinction between the British and American antifolk scenes.

“There are countless similarities between our city and its transatlantic cousin, but the best thing London and New York have in common is that they are home to a legion of misfits and outsiders who manage to find each other in their city’s myriad music scenes. Antifolk is just one of these, and it’s been bubbling away across the pond and in our own backyard for the last few years” (Parkin np).

Another way I have noticed the separate scenes set up boundaries is the way they write the word ANTIFOLK. As stupid as this might seem, antifolk, AntiFolk and Anti-Folk are all apparently very different (though the subtleties are lost on me). The three antifolk web rings also seem to set themselves up against one another and frequently acknowledge the differences in their work.

www.antifolk.org
http://www.antifolk.net/
http://www.antifolkonline.com/

So I’ve been trying to figure out why such a “micro-genre” wouldn’t want to band together and all be friends. How human beings think of themselves remains one of the foundational questions of human existence and the concept of personal identity is fundamental to human ease and subsistence. Separating antifolk by region into “neotribes” has become a way for artists and fans to participate and forge a sense of individual and cultural identity… so it doesn’t really matter that the music is similar (and artists do still relate to one another) but the regional identity is also a very important part of the scene.

Bennett, Andy 1999, ‘Subcultures or neo-tribes? Rethinking the relationship between youth, style, and musical taste’ in Sociology, vol.33, no.3, pp.599-617.’

Parkin, C., “Secret scenes: Antifolk”, Time Out London 12 Sep. 2006. http://www.timeout.com/london/features/1971.html (accessed 14 Apr. 2008)