Filk music

Filk is a form of music created from within fandom, generally late at night at science fiction conventions.

Originally "filk music" was a typo for folk music in a never-published essay on the influence of Science Fiction and Fantasy on folk music.

Fandom being what it was (and is), the term was adopted for the songs, and musical parodies enjoyed by SF conventioneers. Practitioners are known as filkers.

The phrase 'science fiction themed parody folk music' fails to capture the full enormity of filk.

External resources:

• http://www.filker.org
• http://home.earthlink.net/~kayshapero/filkfaq.htm
• http://www.interfilk.org/filk.htm
• news:rec.music.filk newsgroup
• [Open Directory Category: Filk]