Huh. That’s cool. Medieval music has been a thing in Germany for many years (with relatively few pop covers though). From pure market-music (the kind played at medieval fairs), to versions with metal and/or electro elements.
Ougenweide [0] was one of the earliest in the 70ies, Zupfgeigenhansel [1] from the same time did some covers (Bella Ciao in German here)
Die Streuner [2] are not as close to the pure-medieval style but use a lot of self-built instruments.
Satolstelamanderfanz [3] are mostly instrumental and traditional, Corvus Corax [4] are similar, but far bigger, drum heavier, and also have a few covers.
Tanzwut [5] is an example of medieval electro-metal
Schelmish [6] is party-medieval music with metal influences, In Extremo [7] is probably the most successful medieval metal band.
I could probably go on for hours, but I think this is already a bit much, so I’ll stop here ;)
Thank you HN for pointing me to this! It still exists on the internet of 2020, innocent creative brilliance with a nice dose of humor, not spoiled by commercial interests. This almost feels like the internet of yore
Clear serious commitment on those making sure language is authentic.
Hearing some of the instrumental covers makes me fantasize about all the 'bands' of musicians & the songs they'd play live, never to be written down & back before music could be recorded.
I would love to imagine a group playing a song not quite unlike this in a tavern & people going wild...
This is an absolute delight. Some of these do a good job of being authentic, too. Some use thee and thou correctly with the correct conjugations, use "mine" instead of "my" in front of a vowel sound, and so on. Truly a lot of fun.
But how does the money get directed to the original song creator? Can ContentID detect covers? Does the original song creator come by and flag the video?
I think right now Lady Gaga, unless I missed something.
However, "Surfin' USA" goes to whomever owns Chuck Berry's rights to "Sweet little sixteen" -- those were much more similar than "Born This Way" and "Express Yourself" IMO.
At least in the US, parodies tread on thin-ice when they are done in any commercial setting, which collecting ad revenue implies. Fair use is complicated though.
The youtube "remix" videos almost all have a youtube-generated "music in this video" section pointing to the original. Maybe only revenue is redirected if such a section is shown? The bardcore videos I checked don't have such a section.
Between the htop author's gracious response to his project having been forked, and now this, the internet has made me feel better about humanity twice in one week. That cover of Jolene is magnificent. This is how you keep old music alive!
I so wish she would descend from her cloister and grace us with more of her bangin' tunes.
There's nothing I love more than when exceptionally skilled people spend a ton of effort on what's essentially a joke. Her version of Jolene is crazy good, and all of her small changes to the lyrics and the music are absolutely perfect. Ridiculously accurate re-styling of the song!
Not as new, but synthwave https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthwave is a recent genre that has been gaining in popularity. Back before the complete consolidation of radio after the Telecommunications Act of 1996, there were a lot of local DJs who would find bands and promote them. The genres that were part of "popular" music changed over the decades. Now, on the other hand, if you turn on the radio, the music sounds roughly the same as it did 20 years ago.
> Now, on the other hand, if you turn on the radio, the music sounds roughly the same as it did 20 years ago.
Twenty years ago rock was a living genre instead of something on life support from old geezers and rap and hip hop weren’t default music, rock was. Country has also gotten way less Christian and again, much more rap and hip hop influenced. If you listen to a years worth put number ones from 2002 it does not sound like 2022. The difference isn’t as great as 1960-1980 but “roughly the same” it is not.
Radio country ('that Nashville sound') is not for me. Everyone has their own tastes, for sure, but radio country is not mine.
The bro-country that has evolved (an iota) into the snaptrack country is basically unchanged since ~2012. The hick-hop influences are much different than Garth and the other 90's influences, of course, but they are unchanging mostly. For example: both Kasey and Taylor got their start in that sound (kinda), but quickly moved on.
For me, internet streaming saved country. The neo-rebel country you can find online is much better than the radio, to me at least. Acid-country, IPA country, Texas music, whatever the hell John Prine is, etc. are all online now and at shows (were, hopefully we can get shows back again). Granted, it's not as profitable (cheap and fast).
The Nashville Sound has been, is, and will be the same: ca-ching, ca-ching, ca-ching.
As for rock, I'm glad that it's been left behind. We're starting to get really good rock again as people looking for a buck have left and the enthusiasts have stuck around. At least, that's my feeling. Rock, as well, is splintering, but in a good way. It's become more international and those influences are fruitful. The artists are smaller, but the good ones that have made the digital transition have a deeper support network.
You speak truth. That’s all. Living in Oklahoma and Texas I learned many of the flavors - and it was a nice break from my hard rock days in the 90s and naughts.
I am no music buff and I do not follow the genre, but I feel 20 years ago sampling was much more relevant than it is today, while now it's mostly bum-chuck digital bases.
Glad it's making a comeback - basically 80's new wave making a comeback. Though I find a lot of the new stuff is cookie cutter, people just trying to recreate an exact Bladrunner/Outrun exact sound.
I make more of a new wave style sound - things like Thomas Dolby (she blinded me with science) and Gary Numan (cars), using synths to make something totally different. Hope this kind of creative stuff gets more popular.
I wouldn't say 20 years but pop music has gotten extremely stale. The clubs/bars are playing the same exact songs since I moved here 5 years ago. Something is awfully wrong with the production line, or more so - people losing their ear?
On a related note, there's a great trend of high-quality remakes in altogether more recent historical styles. Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox is a great example.
Bardcore is arguably traceable to the "What Is Love?" meme which originated in 2005 on YTMND, based on a 1996 Saturday Night Live skit. It consisted of a short, repeated loop taken from the skit of the three "Roxbury Guys" (90s lounge lizards, basically) bobbing their heads to Haddaway's "What Is Love?" in their car. Endless variants and edits of the loop were made -- one of the most memorable being "What Doth Love Be?" which features a medieval-instrumentation version of the Haddaway riff and a Bayeux Tapestry style art work of three men in a boat:
Always happy to see someone else remembering YTMND. I have a soft spot for the endless remixing with different video/audio influences. I guess it is a similar thing that people do now on TikTok, but maybe people were less inclined to use videos of themselves as source material in the early 2000s
It would honestly be really cool to encounter this (or something like it) unexpectedly in some fantasy type movie. One of my favorite things of the new Westworld series was the Player piano openings of more recent hits.
Have been listening obsessively to this a few weeks ago, absolutely lovely (especially if you know modern french and can marvel at the pronunciation differences).
For anyone else curious about that part of it, an interesting little video [0] shows the evolution of French and its ancestors' phonetics from (reconstructed) Proto Indo-european to modern French.
It's fascinating to see especially how French spelling almost stopped evolving somewhere around Old French, while pronunciation changed dramatically.
Check out Play for me Minstrel play, a duet with the singer of Jethro Tull on the flute. Starts quiet but later they start shredding on flute and guitar unisono.
Oh wow, now that cover of Gangster's Paradise could really use some lyrics.
Coolio's original song is a masterpiece. Especially looking back after the death of George Floyd and it's aftermath, that 1995 song resonates more than it has in the last 25 years.
It's words of the street and the oppressed are universal and timeless (unfortunately). Maybe take the bardcore cover and alter Coolio's lyrics to represent the lead up to the Peasant's Revolt of 1381?
Google Trends search interest for 'Bard' has almost no spike for December 2019 when the Netflix Witcher series was released [1]
(It does show a spike for the Netflix series 'Bard of Blood' which is an 'Indian espionage thriller' but the marketing for that doesn't show any medieval instruments)
The Witcher, the Netflix show, has a bard song which became a popular earworm. I'm confident it has played a part in the popularization of Bardcore as a meme/genre.
I think the juxtaposition of modern writing and wit in Witcher with the not-really-medieval society stuck with pre-steam technology might be the catalyst for creating the Bardcore genre.
I haven't watched "The Witcher" but "The Bard" is a common, affectionate moniker for one of the English language's most quintessential and influential playwrights and poets.
If anything I'd considered that term to be flattering.
A fellow once told me the earth is quite unholy
They call me slow of mind 'round the land
And a maiden very cruel, wrote out I am a fool
In letters spelléd out using her hand
I can picture a group of medieval brutes sharpening their blades around a fire listening to the toxicity version, getting amped up before a castle raid.
Another example is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAxjH2HCWzo
This is a trailer for BBC4's Medieval Season. The music is Jimi Hendrix's Purple Haze played on Medieval Instruments.
Hildegard von Blingin doesn't do "ancient english", that's early modern English, c. 16th century. This account is the only one I have found using early medieval dialects: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbVcb9puAsOhXBT2_XPFf-A
I used the term "ancient" as an indication that it was older than the contemporary english because I didn't know which category it fell into, whether it was old english, middle english, or, as you say, early modern english. Thanks for naming the right category.
Just a shame there were no vocals for the almost-period-appropriate lyrics, (and they were a lot less inspired by medieval myths than some of the other English metal songs of the time)
Back in 2003, Rondellus came out with "Sabbatum: Medieval Tribute to Black Sabbath". See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AX2y51ixsu8 for their version of War Pigs, titled "Verres Militares".
In 2006, Richard Thompson included a short (30 second) instrumental riff on "Oops I Did It Again" in medieval style, titled "Marry Ageyn Hic Hev Donne Yt", as part of his "1000 Years of Popular Music" album. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIMJDNQx0B4 . He jokingly referred to it as a "medieval ballad from Brittany".
I do believe I actually stumbled across Stary Olsa playing at a Renaissance Faire in Texas. They blew my mind. I kept thinking, "how did they end up in Texas?" Nice folks, also.
Youtube hadn't shown me any of these songs yet, so this posting was my introduction. I watched a bunch and it's a fun trend--now I suppose I'll see them recommended.
My observation is that finally those history majors, English majors, and music majors in college (universities in the US) will pay off with a bit of attention. I often see some in the tech crowd dismiss the humanities, suggesting that non-STEM degrees that don't lead to a lucrative career are a waste. Well, I think this shows that having some people who know those things makes life a bit better for everyone.
See also: The show Westworld's soundtrack. The show is set in western themed park in the near future, and contains several excellent remixes of others songs in a western style.
that second song is dope. in regards to the genre of pirate metal this is my understanding to be one of the more popular bands (and a very fun song): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f55CqLc6IR0
I'm partial to Storm Seeker, which is more traditional folk metal combined with pirate metal. Their lyrics aren't really humorous, either. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCnttPJHt6s
As enjoyable as this is, I still can't help but to worry that it's another imitation of something historical or traditional eclipsing the actual thing it is meant to pay homage to. Let's not forget the original, else we run the risk of forgetting, and the closest thing becomes and imitation of an imitation.
I'll search medieval music and so often I find modern, original, creations. It can be great and sometimes I'm in the mood for it, but I want us to have as a culture a memory of our older arts.
Absolutely the best way to remember things through history and keep them alive is to keep making them.
The commitment some of these artists are showing to ensure the language & pronunciation is as accurate as possible is astounding. Really, this is a hell of a way to get kids interested in old languages when they're being taught at school.
A few years ago, there was a Westerner who got together with a couple of Japanese craftsmen and started producing ukiyo-e -- Japanese woodblock prints -- of Super Mario, Link, Samus, and other video game characters rendered in a traditional style with the hope of reviving interest in the style.
It turns out that ukiyo-e's popularity waxed and waned over two centuries, with art audiences getting bored of it until some new artist found a way to make the medium contemporary and relevant again with new subject matter. So, far from trivializing a great Japanese tradition by associating it with material from his vidya, he was keeping it alive the exact same way Japanese artists kept it alive over the centuries.
Most great art takes from the past, I don't see any reason why music shouldn't take inspiration from styles or instruments from the medieval periods (or any other!)
My experiences with searching for older music precede this trend, a few years back I researched bardic tradition and that lead to me exploring traditional Welsh music and it really opened my mind to how much is out there. The internet helps enormously but even still things take digging, and get lost.
I hope that this style trending does lead to a renewed interest and appreciation of medieval music and history. It's a matter of how the seeds fall, so to speak. Many might just enjoy these modern takes, but then there are those who will take it further to learn about the old source.
Well, I mean, if you were on youtube in the past few months and outside of the default suggestion trashpile, I can't imagine how you'd manage to evade this phenomenon.
I'm a big music fan, and I use YouTube pretty much all day every day with a front page full of all sorts of eclectic and eccentric stuff, and I spend a lot of time in alternative online music communities and follow a lot of independent and experimental musicians, but somehow I've never seen or heard of this until just now. Just goes to show how much algorithmic curation can vary from person to person.
That's a bit of a loss on your part: Youtube has, ahem, a large music library—my favorite litmus test is the presence of Gruuthaagy's output. And secondly, Youtube's recommendations surface some great stuff once in a while, if you manage to teach it that your taste is not quite generic.
One of my musical pastimes formerly was searching for two disparate genres together on YT. (However, apparently either I've reached the limit of that configuration space, at least for now—or it's Google's algo killing the results by becoming too imprecise.)
Well, if I try to imagine electric bluegrass, I get rockabilly.
My favorite cover of DSotM is the meh-titled ‘Jazz Side of the Moon’ by Yahel, Moreno, Hoenig and Blake. More specifically, it's the only worthy cover so far imo (though the bluegrass one is a quite strong contender, yeah). Surprisingly ‘JSotM’ isn't on YT in entirety—which is the greatly preferred mode of listening to it—but some snatches can be had at https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Yahel%2C+Moreno...
From just the name, I feel like it should resemble Burzum's prison years.
Edit: in practice, what I hear so far sounds more like a mod-tracker version of Summoning. Really, for actual atmospheric black-fantasy synth stuff, Summoning is the name to look up. (The old albums are greatly preferable: e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JgLFdNSwks)
Interesting about two weeks ago I discovered Bardcore when I was looking for cues to use in online roll d20 games.
I am playing a PF2 gnome bard which is what triggered the search, though I was looking initially for circus style music and things lie the original intro to mack the knife (german version)
[1] This clip is a Sotchi submarine. (We're in the alps and therefore don't have a real beach, so not only do we have artificial beaches, we're building an artificial surf pool near our slopes to stay competitive.) Natali's pop propaganda has been even less subtle in the past: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPdxUyUUhes
Ougenweide [0] was one of the earliest in the 70ies, Zupfgeigenhansel [1] from the same time did some covers (Bella Ciao in German here)
Die Streuner [2] are not as close to the pure-medieval style but use a lot of self-built instruments.
Satolstelamanderfanz [3] are mostly instrumental and traditional, Corvus Corax [4] are similar, but far bigger, drum heavier, and also have a few covers.
Tanzwut [5] is an example of medieval electro-metal
Schelmish [6] is party-medieval music with metal influences, In Extremo [7] is probably the most successful medieval metal band.
I could probably go on for hours, but I think this is already a bit much, so I’ll stop here ;)
[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95EoHfFGBeU
[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_loaZEwKkc
[2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOoIHHwjg-0
[3]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTJkp06x7EE
[4]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWruBwPNBOs
[5]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5fmbSnVQrI
[6]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIQiSZdX8vA
[7]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwcde8YTe2M