W. Randy Hoffman (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} mrgoodwraith) wrote,@ 2008-04-11 14:42:00 |
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Recent filk history
Hmmm...two comments so far on today's Pegasus Brainstorming post, none on yesterday's FKO report...I dunno, just not feelin' the love here. ;-D Well, maybe this topic will incite more interest.
About three weeks ago, I was asked to be the presenter at the PARSEC (Pittsburgh science fiction club) meeting tomorrow. I gave a talk on the History of Filk at one of the meetings last year, but I only got as far as the late 80s (after the collapse of Off Centaur and founding of Consonance), so I'm going to take up where I left off. Anyone have any suggestions for other notable events in the filk community since then besides what I have listed in the rest of this entry, and anyone want to assign dates to the dateless ones?
1987: Heather Alexander releases first solo album.
1987: Founding of ConChord.
1988: Robert Heinlein passes.
Start of filk fandom in UK and founding of the UK filkcon.
1988-90(?): Brief existence of Thor Records.
1990: Founding of M.A.S.S. F.I.L.C.
1990: Frank Hayes' song "Cosmos" is played as the wakeup song for the crew of the shuttle Discovery.
1990-1: Start of filk fandom in Germany.
1990-2000: Decline of filkzine and songbook publishing (except "Xenofilkia") and rise of the online filk communities (filk forum on GEnie, filk echo on FidoNet, alt.music.filk, rec.music.filk, followed by #filkhaven on IRC and filk activity on LJ and elsewhere).
1991: Founding of FilKONtario, Interfilk, and the Northeast Filk Convention.
~1991: Kathy Mar writes her famous article "The Dandelion Conspiracy".
Brief existence of Musicon.
Brief existence of Dandelion Digital.
~1993: First filk releases on CD.
1993: "Neofan," the first album of German filk, is released.
Wail Songs ceases production.
1993-1996: The seminal convention appearances and album releases by the "new wave" of rock- and rap-inspired filk and dementia artists of the 90s (Urban Tapestry, Ookla, Luke Ski, Sudden Death, Avalon Rising, Annwn, Black Book Band, UK's Phoenix).
1995: Founding class inducted into the Filk Hall of Fame.
1995: Infamous confrontation with hotel personnel at OVFF 11 leads to the mass performance of "March of Cambreadth" in the lobby.
~1996: Julia Ecklar retires from live performance.
Founding of FilkContinental.
1997: The last Disclave provides much song fodder.
1998: Clam Chowder are the first Worldcon filk GoHs.
1998: Gary Anderson passes.
~1998: First online filk stores begin to appear; however, few of these work well even today.
1999: Founding of GAFilk.
1999: Buck Coulson passes, as does George "Lan" Laskowski, whose Hugo-winning fanzine "Lan's Lantern" had provided influential reviews of filk recordings and filkcons for years.
~2000 and onward: Professional touring musicians begin showing up at filk conventions and/or Worlcons on their own dime (Carla Ulbrich, Joe Giacoio, Chris Conway, Janis Ian, The Fibs, Jonathan Coulton).
2000: "Pioneers of Mars" by Karen Linsley and Lloyd Landa wins first place in the Mars Society's inaugural Rouget de Lisle songwriting competition. Lloyd Landa passes ten days before the song's public debut at the Mars Society's annual convention.
First commercial filk and dementia DVDs appear but do not sell well; DVDs fail to become widely produced in these communities.
2001: Steve McDonald attends all of the world's filkcons and records their attendees singing "Many Hearts, One Voice" for his WorlDream project.
2001: Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson pass.
2002: Leonard Zubkoff passes.
2002: Filk Radio begins running continuous streaming filk music on the Live365 Internet service.
2002: A Bellavia/English composition is used as the theme song for the ABC-TV cartoon "Fillmore."
2003: Prometheus re-engineers and re-releases Julia Ecklar's "Divine Intervention" on CD.
Tom Smith becomes first filker to sell an entire album as a download rather than on physical media.
2004: Prometheus, the National Space Society, and the Mars Society collaboratively release the "To Touch the Stars" CD. It -- and two of its contributors, Karen Linsley and Lloyd Landa -- become the first filk CD and performers to achieve major coverage in most space science publications and websites. Its track "Pioneers of Mars" by Karen and Lloyd is used as the "start-of-sol" wakeup music for the Mars Rover Opportunity.
2004: Buzz Aldrin breaks up on air following the Shuttle Columbia disaster after quoting the lyrics of Jordin Kare's "Fire in the Sky."
2004: "The Filkado" performed at the Worldcon in Boston.
2005: "To Touch the Stars" becomes the first filk CD to be sold in the gift shop of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.
2005: The Filk Film Project begins gathering footage for a (still unreleased) documentary about filk.
2005: Uffington Horse are the featured music guests at the Seattle NASFiC. A Three Weird Sisters reunion concert is a major program item at the Worldcon in Glasgow.
2005-6: Jonathan Coulton's Thing a Week endeavor (new songs released over the Internet each week for a year) inspires both Tom Smith's iTom project and collaborative dementia effort The FuMP (Funny Music Project).
2006: Cynthia McQuillin and Leigh Ann Hussey pass.
2007: Dave Alway passes.
2007: Wild Mercy are the featured music guests at the NASFiC in St. Louis.
2008: Founding of Conflikt. Steve McDonald records the attendees for WorlDream's "Many Hearts, One Voice," so the song will still feature singers from all of the world's extant filk cons.
2008: Greg McMullan passes.
2008: Kathy Mar slated to be Music GoH at the Worldcon in Denver.
Hmmm...two comments so far on today's Pegasus Brainstorming post, none on yesterday's FKO report...I dunno, just not feelin' the love here. ;-D Well, maybe this topic will incite more interest.
About three weeks ago, I was asked to be the presenter at the PARSEC (Pittsburgh science fiction club) meeting tomorrow. I gave a talk on the History of Filk at one of the meetings last year, but I only got as far as the late 80s (after the collapse of Off Centaur and founding of Consonance), so I'm going to take up where I left off. Anyone have any suggestions for other notable events in the filk community since then besides what I have listed in the rest of this entry, and anyone want to assign dates to the dateless ones?
1987: Heather Alexander releases first solo album.
1987: Founding of ConChord.
1988: Robert Heinlein passes.
Start of filk fandom in UK and founding of the UK filkcon.
1988-90(?): Brief existence of Thor Records.
1990: Founding of M.A.S.S. F.I.L.C.
1990: Frank Hayes' song "Cosmos" is played as the wakeup song for the crew of the shuttle Discovery.
1990-1: Start of filk fandom in Germany.
1990-2000: Decline of filkzine and songbook publishing (except "Xenofilkia") and rise of the online filk communities (filk forum on GEnie, filk echo on FidoNet, alt.music.filk, rec.music.filk, followed by #filkhaven on IRC and filk activity on LJ and elsewhere).
1991: Founding of FilKONtario, Interfilk, and the Northeast Filk Convention.
~1991: Kathy Mar writes her famous article "The Dandelion Conspiracy".
Brief existence of Musicon.
Brief existence of Dandelion Digital.
~1993: First filk releases on CD.
1993: "Neofan," the first album of German filk, is released.
Wail Songs ceases production.
1993-1996: The seminal convention appearances and album releases by the "new wave" of rock- and rap-inspired filk and dementia artists of the 90s (Urban Tapestry, Ookla, Luke Ski, Sudden Death, Avalon Rising, Annwn, Black Book Band, UK's Phoenix).
1995: Founding class inducted into the Filk Hall of Fame.
1995: Infamous confrontation with hotel personnel at OVFF 11 leads to the mass performance of "March of Cambreadth" in the lobby.
~1996: Julia Ecklar retires from live performance.
Founding of FilkContinental.
1997: The last Disclave provides much song fodder.
1998: Clam Chowder are the first Worldcon filk GoHs.
1998: Gary Anderson passes.
~1998: First online filk stores begin to appear; however, few of these work well even today.
1999: Founding of GAFilk.
1999: Buck Coulson passes, as does George "Lan" Laskowski, whose Hugo-winning fanzine "Lan's Lantern" had provided influential reviews of filk recordings and filkcons for years.
~2000 and onward: Professional touring musicians begin showing up at filk conventions and/or Worlcons on their own dime (Carla Ulbrich, Joe Giacoio, Chris Conway, Janis Ian, The Fibs, Jonathan Coulton).
2000: "Pioneers of Mars" by Karen Linsley and Lloyd Landa wins first place in the Mars Society's inaugural Rouget de Lisle songwriting competition. Lloyd Landa passes ten days before the song's public debut at the Mars Society's annual convention.
First commercial filk and dementia DVDs appear but do not sell well; DVDs fail to become widely produced in these communities.
2001: Steve McDonald attends all of the world's filkcons and records their attendees singing "Many Hearts, One Voice" for his WorlDream project.
2001: Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson pass.
2002: Leonard Zubkoff passes.
2002: Filk Radio begins running continuous streaming filk music on the Live365 Internet service.
2002: A Bellavia/English composition is used as the theme song for the ABC-TV cartoon "Fillmore."
2003: Prometheus re-engineers and re-releases Julia Ecklar's "Divine Intervention" on CD.
Tom Smith becomes first filker to sell an entire album as a download rather than on physical media.
2004: Prometheus, the National Space Society, and the Mars Society collaboratively release the "To Touch the Stars" CD. It -- and two of its contributors, Karen Linsley and Lloyd Landa -- become the first filk CD and performers to achieve major coverage in most space science publications and websites. Its track "Pioneers of Mars" by Karen and Lloyd is used as the "start-of-sol" wakeup music for the Mars Rover Opportunity.
2004: Buzz Aldrin breaks up on air following the Shuttle Columbia disaster after quoting the lyrics of Jordin Kare's "Fire in the Sky."
2004: "The Filkado" performed at the Worldcon in Boston.
2005: "To Touch the Stars" becomes the first filk CD to be sold in the gift shop of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.
2005: The Filk Film Project begins gathering footage for a (still unreleased) documentary about filk.
2005: Uffington Horse are the featured music guests at the Seattle NASFiC. A Three Weird Sisters reunion concert is a major program item at the Worldcon in Glasgow.
2005-6: Jonathan Coulton's Thing a Week endeavor (new songs released over the Internet each week for a year) inspires both Tom Smith's iTom project and collaborative dementia effort The FuMP (Funny Music Project).
2006: Cynthia McQuillin and Leigh Ann Hussey pass.
2007: Dave Alway passes.
2007: Wild Mercy are the featured music guests at the NASFiC in St. Louis.
2008: Founding of Conflikt. Steve McDonald records the attendees for WorlDream's "Many Hearts, One Voice," so the song will still feature singers from all of the world's extant filk cons.
2008: Greg McMullan passes.
2008: Kathy Mar slated to be Music GoH at the Worldcon in Denver.
