Tom Smith
I think I finally nailed how to describe it.
I've been talking about it a lot, thinking about it a lot, since Dragon*Con. My frustration at the disrespect filk gets has been growing, even as I recognize that on some levels there is at least evidence as to why it might get that disrespect. But the thing that has really made me crazy is how elaborate the attempts to explain what filk is have become. Everybody, including me, tries philosophical bases, examples of songs that might be filk if they were done in fandom, blah blah blah.
There is fan fiction.
There is fan art.
Filk is fan music. Period.
As with fan fiction and fan art, some of it is at a professional level. And some of it is not. For there is an added dimension, an extra skill, not needed for fan fiction and fan art: Fan music must be performed. And fandom, being composed primarily of social outsiders, is already at a disadvantage at something most people find uncomfortable at best. This is why the filk community is so accepting, so polite.
If you are coming at filk from outside the filk community, it is natural that you will gravitate towards the works of more talented musicians, singers, and songwriters, in exactly the same way that you would prefer the books of writers you like, the paintings and sculpture of artists you like. All we ask is that you judge each on its own merit, exactly the way you would any other artistic creation. Don't like a particular song, or singer? Wait five minutes.
- - - Tom Smith