Your response, while it does touch upon a common problem of a lack of depth in people trying to sincerely understand this kind of music, no offense, but your critique sounds more like an elitist affectation than a serious attempt to love and connect to this music. I know that the way I play this music is influenced by overtones of "modern" culture, but that doesn't matter. I know a lot of people acknowledge that too.
Most of us didn't grow up around this music, but if you love it, learn it.
I come from the Midwest where the fiddle tradition is not nearly the same as it is in the Appalachians. I'm not southern, I'm not Appalachian, but you know, why do we have to have these explicit boundaries between time periods and regional cultures? The process of culture works by breaking down and building up definitions of what an object or system of symbols (like music) is. We all participate in that, and by saying that it is impossible for "us" to play the music of another culture pretends that culture is a static force.
I think you just want to sound cynical and over it. Thanks for adding pretentiousness. Can you assume that your way of understanding this music is better? How are YOU not commodifying this music just as much as the next fucking kid?
You know what? I STUDY this music fucking hard, and that's my gig. I WANT to know the roots of it on an intimate level, because history is something inherently worth preserving. Does that mean I'm commodifying it? In some sense, perhaps, because that process involves defining a range of what constitutes old-time music, and thus making it an object available to be commodified. However, that process doesn't just involve archaic music. That happens to everything, including things that we make completely ourselves (which is a questionable concept at that) like punk.
You know what's punk about old-time music? Taking it and making your OWN. Those old-timers were not thinking about "How can I make this sound as old as possible?" they were and are thinking about how to play what they love. I'm not turning this music into some sacred artifact that must be preserved from the deathly influence of modern western culture, I'm subjecting it to those influences to make it relevant, and also, reciprocally, allowing myself to be influenced by the deep mystery of the difference between my way of thinking about music, and those subject's ways of thinking about music.
So thanks for that absolutely asinine post. I think you should think about this music a little deeper before making this joke of a generalization and furthering the sense that this music is only for a select group people (perhaps in your mind, just yourself and the few people you condone as worthy.)
