Royal Musical Association Annual Conference

“Spinning Yarns”: Examining problems of sea shanty authenticity in the present day

My paper looks at the idea of authentic performances of sea shanties and whether the appropriation of the shanty by other performance styles (after the three main shanty revivals of the twentieth-century) can ultimately result in a legitimate shanty performance. By considering the characteristics of a sea song that cause it to fall under the label of ‘shanty’ and then comparing these characteristics to features of more recent renditions of shanties, we can determine whether true shanty singing died out with the arrival of the age of steam or whether the shanty community is alive and thriving to this day. At first glance, it would seem like the latter- with ‘traditional’ shanty groups such as The Fisherman’s Friends gaining widespread recognition and even capturing the interest of the film industry, but to what extent does this constitute ‘proper’…