Filk
Fanworks and original works in the filk social circle.
LINKS
Filk is a broad category, defined as any of several things. This includes:
Original lyrics set to traditional, commercial, or original tunes. Filksingers perform their own or others' works, and occasionally parodies of others' works.
Subject matter ranging from fandom, meta-discussion about fandom, original science fiction, storytelling about science fact, social commentary, and really just about anything you might find in a group that had regular conventions for song circles
Filk got its name from a preprint typo ('folk song') in the fifties, and held on because a term to distinguish fanwork/fan culture song work was useful. There were several cohesive filk scenes, including the Bayfilk crowd/attendant subsequent events (and attendant drama, as is tradition), Worldcon's filk room, and other conventions that regularly included filksings. Works like 'I Ship It' and Battle Beasts' Berserk-inspired songs count as filk, and people like Adam Alexander and Tom Smith are still around (I also need to sit down with some Talis Kimberly, and the Misbehavin' Maidens).
I've got too many filk songs that I enjoy to list here, but I'll toss up some links to songs I enjoy. These are mostly old recordings, so language or subject matter may not be what you expect (or consider fan work). I summarize, but some things deserve a bit more examination, so I do go on a bit. In your own research, I recommend Youtube, the accounts of rocketman0739 on archive.org, anything from Bayfilk, looking up an artist on Bandcamp (they're often there), and Fanlore. This isn't going to be comprehensive (yet, if ever), although at this rate I might make a zine release...
The work of Julia Ecklar in general, including:
Her album Divine Interventions which can still be purchased or listened to on Youtube. Ladyhawke is just amazing, and the orchestral intro is really something else. Temper of Revenge is a story that may or may not have ever made it into print, but it's a compelling one. (There's also a parody out there called Temperature of Revenge, regarding Khan...)
The works of Technical Difficulties, albums Station Break and Please Stand By. I especially love their classical adaptations ('Technical Difficulties' 1 and 2, especially), as well as Challenge (by Bill Roper). Star Sisters, Dedication, and Oh: and the most real and sad thing of all: Lullaby for a Weary World.
In the science fiction category:
Carmen Miranda's Ghost is a great collection of scifi stories. I think that Some Kind of Hero was written by Mercedes Lackey (she comes up in this stuff a lot!), and a lot of these are sort of updates of naval adventure and ghost stories. Less the Star Trek optimism for the future, and more down-to-earth ("For space is wide and good friends are too few").
Fantasy:
Aisling Green Kissed The Fairie Queen This is quite new as I write this. A knight living in caverns fights the surface faeries' guardian(?) monster. It's moody and deliciously fleshed-out and spooky, yet leaves plenty of lore to the imagination. Wonderful original work.
And science fact:
Minus Ten and Counting, which has a blatantly clear perspective that the future of humanity lies in space, and that getting off Earth is how humanity makes it. (Do I agree? I don't know; might be insurmountable as a task, and we can also solve problems on Earth anyway.) There's some Cold War culture in that, and also an Apollo/shuttle-era support for space travel that still insists on remembering that this is dangerous stuff; people have died; and they probably will. You can listen here on Archive.org. Surprise! is cute; I recommend Pioneer's Song, The Light Ship, Sentries, and Witnesses' Waltz. Light Ship is, honestly, a solarpunk anthem 25 years before anyone had coined the term, and it might be the most relevant thing on this album in this day and age of the encroaching corporate space hellscape. Hope Eyrie is the album's thesis statement for space travel here, and Fly, Columbia! is... well, it has aged. Columbia didn't make it, and people died. Facing this song was an interesting conflict between tears, enjoyment of the song itself, nostalgia for what was, and the question of what is appropriate in culture after something like that has happened. Do I say that it's one of my favorite compositions in this cassette? Do I open with, "well, it's sad now, but--"? And, the thing is: this album went through that, back in its day. There is a really sorrowful recording that includes some of its songs, from a memorial service and concert held at Bayfilk the year of Challenger's loss. In that, you see how these artists themselves coped with those events and the choices and future they hoped our society might make. It's... interesting. Fly, Columbia! is bittersweet, but I like it, and, well--remember to support funding not just corporations and federal launches, but the oversight and safety boards that we need. I don't know if we need to make it off space to make it as a species; I do know that we should do what we can to do it safely.
Other resources:
https://www.mcgath.com/tst/ A history of filk!
https://filkyeahfilk.com/what-is-filk/ A blog that speaks for itself.