Bland fiolspelmän och folksångerskor. En kvalitativ intervjustudie om hur folkmusiker förhåller sig till spelmansbegreppet.

Abstract

The aim of this study is to discuss how professional traditional musicians negotiate their identities as musicians in the context of the term spelman, along with its connected ideas and values. In the Swedish traditional music genre the spelman carries a long and complicated background, lined with national romanticism, left-wing movements, and ideas of high musical skill, as well as ideas of being part of a collective where musical qualities are less prioritized. These conflicting ideas result in widely different associations and uses by the respondents of the term spelman; the experience of inclusion or exclusion, or the wish of either of them, along with identity conflicts stemming from ideas of Swedish traditional music as particularly authentic and anti-commercial, while also using it to make a living.