Celtic fusion

Celtic fusion is an umbrella term for any modern music style which incorporates influences from Celtic music or from Celtic people.

It is a syncretic musical tradition which borrows freely from the musical traditions of all the Celtic nations and the Celtic diaspora, as well as from all styles of popular music; it is thus sometimes associated with the Pan-Celtic movement. While Celtic fusion may include authentic music from any Celtic nation, it may also feature non-traditional or non-Celtic music that has been influenced by the common characteristic of Celtic identity.

Celtic electronica The genre of Celtic electronica blends traditional Celtic influences with modern electronic music. Artists such as Martyn Bennett, Lorne Cousin, Mouth Music, Mark Saul, and Valtos (band) whose backgrounds are in traditional Celtic music tend to favor traditional instruments, melodies, and rhythms, but augment them with drum machines and electronic sounds. Others such as Brigid Boden and Niteworks approach the fusion from a background in electronic music that eschews traditional instruments and incorporates traditional melodies played on synths into a new-age-influenced trance sound. Peatbog Faeries have experimented with Celtic electronica, mainly on Faerie Stories.

Celtic hip-hop

The first Celtic-identified hip-hop group to gain mainstream notoriety was House of Pain, a Los Angeles based group which incorporated rhymes about the Irish-American experience into their music. With a few exceptions, however, their actual instrumentation did not incorporate traditional "Celtic" instruments, though they did use time signatures typical of jigs on several songs – a major deviation in a hip-hop market where virtually everything is done in time.

Marxman, an Irish-Jamaican hip-hop group, whose explicitly nationalist and Marxist politics gained them notoriety and infamy in the United Kingdom in the 1980s, incorporated traditional instruments into several songs on their first album, but largely abandoned them on their second album for a more electronica- and blues-oriented sound that would later form the basis for the emergence of trip hop.

Sinéad O'Connor contributed vocals to several of Marxman's songs and even tried her hand at rapping on her 1994 album Universal Mother with a track about the Great Irish Famine of 1845–1849.

Starting in 1998 Manau, a French hip-hop group of Breton origin, created the first truly consistent fusion of Celtic music and hip-hop in two critically acclaimed albums, incorporating a wide range of traditional instruments and melodies and combining them with hip-hop beats. In one of their songs, they used part of an arrangement of a traditional tune (Tri Martolod) by Alan Stivell, and were subsequently sued by him for copyright infringement.

In 2023, Limerick hip-hop artist, Strange Boy, was awarded the Liam O'Flynn Award by the Arts Council in recognition of his work blending poetry and rap with Irish traditional music. He has worked with Moya Brennan and other traditional musicians. The Belfast group Kneecap has also worked with traditional musicians including Lisa Canny from the band BIIRD, Róis and Radie Peat from Lankum.

Celtic-influenced world music Many Celtic fusion artists integrate musical traditions from all over the world into their sound. The clearest example of this is Afro Celt Sound System, the members of which bring to the band strong backgrounds in either African or Irish musical tradition. The Irish fusion group Skelpin incorporates Spanish flamenco, Middle Eastern, and American soul elements and instruments into its music. Delhi 2 Dublin , a band based in Canada, is known for fusing Irish and Indian music. Salsa Celtica is an 11-member "world fusion" project based in Edinburgh, Scotland that mixes salsa with Scottish bagpiping and world influences. Other artists such as Loreena McKennitt, Red Cardell, and Catya Maré take inspiration from numerous diverse traditions around the world, although their focus may be on Celtic music.

Celtic jazz Modern acts such as Clannad, Nightnoise, and Breton musician, (in the 1980s) combined Celtic music with jazz. The jazz can range from the big band swing style to the smooth jazz style.

Jack Talty's Ensemble Ériu is an Irish band that blends the minimalism and improvisatory spirit of jazz around Irish traditional melodies.

Norman&Corrie, comprising Scottish drummer Corrie Dick and multi-instrumentalist Norman Willmore of Peatbog Faeries, perform Shetlandic fiddle music reimagined as contemporary electronic-fringed jazz. The band released their debut album Twa Double Doubles in 2024.

Connemara-based group, Trá Pháidín, play music which has been described as a fusion of traditional Irish music, folk and experimental jazz with elements of art rock and krautrock. Celtic metal

Celtic new-age Celtic new-age artists such as Enya, Clannad, Afro Celt Sound System, Catya Maré, Iona, and Gary Stadler incorporate traditional melodies and lyrics with synths and layered sounds to create a mellow relaxed fusion that has proven highly marketable. Enya, for example, is one of the best-selling musicians in the world.

Celtic pop Celtic pop artists such as the Corrs, Nolwenn Leroy, Saint Sister, Mimori Yusa Clannad and Gwennyn incorporate pop music elements into traditional tunes.

Celtic punk

Other Celtic punk artists are the Real McKenzies, Neck, Flatfoot 56, the Tossers, Mutiny, and Black 47 (who also incorporate hip-hop influences). The genre is most popular in Ireland, Scotland, England, the United States, and Canada.

Punks singing in Celtic languages began to emerge in the late 1970s in Wales; a rather harder sound was adopted by Yr Anhrefn in the 1980s. The 2000s saw in Scotland the emergence of several Gaelic-language punk bands, such as Mill a h-Uile Rud and the genre is also represented in Brittany with Les Ramoneurs de Menhirs.

Celtic reggae The fusion of Celtic music and reggae is a hybrid started by the band Edward II and others.

Celtic rock

Modern Celtic rock acts began with the Waterboys, Alan Stivell, Gaelic Storm, Sinéad O'Connor, the Cranberries and the Proclaimers.

Books "Irish Folk, Trad and Blues: A Secret History" by Colin Harper (2005) covers Horslips, The Pogues, Planxty, and others. Cunliffe, Barry, ‘The Celts: A Very Short Introduction’ (Oxford, 2003). Maier, Bernhard, ‘The Celts: A history from earliest times to the present’, K. Windle trans, (Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 2003).

Celtic fusion

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