Revisiting the sea shanty: Introduction

Abstract

This Forum considers the changing place of the sea shanty in musical culture since the late nineteenth century. Its three articles explore successive phases in the genre, from the first major published collections in the 1900s, through an important revival in the 1960s, to the dramatic recent growth in shanty festivals. This introduction locates the Forum in wider historical, musicological and related issues, and explains the research context from which the articles emerged.