Worldwide Appeal of Celtic Music
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Posted by Mike
Dolph (Wicked Pete Speakeasy) of Three Quarter Ale said something interesting over in the TQA Forums a couple of days ago about individual sales of their traditional Irish tunes on iTunes and it sort of got me thinking. We were actually discussing how the online music stores are being made into scapegoats for the bottoming out of record sales. He pointed out that, in a way never before possible, people from all over the world can connect to a new artists. All they have to do is log onto iTunes, or whatever music service they like, and search for a particular traditional tune, and instantly see all of the artists who have performed that particular song. That can, in turn, translate into being a new fan of a band they might never have had any opportunity at all to hear before. He mentions specifically that since they began selling on iTunes, TQA has sold individual tracks of some of their traditional stuff in Australia, Canada, Japan, and several places in Europe including the UK.
The reason this is interesting to me, though, is because so often we hear that traditional Irish music is fairly unpopular in Ireland, and sort of dismissed as an “American” thing. I know that millions of Irish immigrants ended up here in the US, and that’s a large part of why Celtic music is as popular as it is here, but when I hear anecdotal evidence like that, it makes me wonder if there isn’t really a deeper vein of Celtophilia in the world than people realize. As for our own little site, I can say that we’ve had visitors from more than 20 countries, pretty much spanning the globe. North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia have all sent us visitors. Still, there have only been 2 from Ireland. Does that seem strange?
I’d love to hear what others think on this topic, so if you have an opinion, please leave a comment and share it with us!
Slainte,
Mike
May 21st, 2008 at 10:16 am
I think that the traditional Irish music is probably proportionally as popular in Ireland as it is the rest of the world. You can find Celtic music everywhere. I loved visiting Italy and finding a dozen Italians playing sessions in castles outside of Rome. The music is everywhere. And yes, thanks to iTunes and such services it is easier to find than ten years ago.
Nevertheless, it is still a niche market. And niche markets are small but passionate.
May 22nd, 2008 at 1:07 am
What fascinates me though is the way that Celtic music seems to connect to people modern people across so many cultures. Of course, most of what we have nowadays is really modern folk music by pretty much any standard, but can you imagine the Gauls and Romans getting together to have a session? I think the one time they tried that Rome got burned to the ground.