Irish Celtic Influences on Rock and Pop Music

Facharbeit (Schule) aus dem Jahr 2012 im Fachbereich Englisch - Landeskunde, Note: 1,0, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: Irish Celtic traditional music has been a typical identification mark for Irish people and the other Celtic nations for a long time. Even today the terms Celtic and Irish are very common in the music business and especially in the rock and pop sector. This is because since the 1960s a lot of bands have combined traditional elements of folk music with rock and pop which is known worldwide and this way the bands created new genres. The famous Celtic rock band Horslips made the first step by mixing elements in this manner and the U2 carry on this phenomenon with their music being one of the most famous in the world. The main theme of this research paper is presenting the Irish Celtic traditional folk music and its characteristics and pointing out how it has influenced the rock and pop music. Examples will be given with famous bands that have incorporated these influences and connected them with idioms of various styles of rock and popular music. The focus is set on Ireland because it is most famous for its Celtic music and therefore plays an essential role.