The Twentieth Century

The first recordings of Celtic music were published in America. The early recording labels understood that, due to the increasing number of immigrants to America, there was a large market for ethnic recordings: Irish, Italian, Jewish, Latin-American and Afro-American bluesmen, too. They began to record the sounds and melodies of their native countries, and these records were sold in great numbers. Music-hall artists put in their shows elements derived from these various ethnic sources, and for this reason many Irish and Scottish melodies became known to a wider audience. At that time there wasn't much interest in separating the various cultural sources: for example, the American (German in origin) accordion player John J. Kimmel, very good at playing Irish music, had the nickname of "The Irish Dutchman" (!!!).(1) 

Ethnic and pop music began to mix themselves: Irish music, as we already said, based on a melodic approach, was now accompanied by piano, guitar or perhaps a full  rhythm section! (2) 

In Ireland the first records arrived at the same time as the founding of the Ceili Bands. In the 1930s began a more professional approach to the music (due to the  first 78s), and arrangements with a richer sound. This would lead to a change in the places where dancing music was performed. Because transportation was more accessible and country people could get to the towns more easily, dance halls sprung up and there was a decline in the number of house and street dances which had been typical of 18th and 19th century Irish music.

These variations of the  Irish music scene overlapped with one of the less happy periods of the social  history of Ireland. Anyway, due to these changes, music went out of Irish home and came into the dance halls. The musicians played on a stage with microphones. It was the birth of the Ceili Band. (3) 

Musicians needed a solid musical base to play for hours and hours in noisy and crowded dance halls: this base could be the accompaniment by a piano, or a full rhythm section with piano, guitar, bass and drums. The melody line was carried by the fiddle, flute, tin whistle, accordion or banjo, and sometimes with  "pop" instruments such as sax or clarinet. The repertoire was varied by the  circumstance: it's difficult to say if Ceili bands were more Irish dancing music  bands infuenced by pop music or vice versa (4). 

This was, anyway, the historical precedent of a fusion between traditional music and modern styles. This trend grew stronger in the 1960s and the 1970s with the development of a "modern" approach to this music by indigenous Irish musicians including Planxty, the Bothy Band, De Dannan, Clannad, Paul Brady and the Chieftains in  Ireland; and in Scotland the Battlefield Band, the Tannahill Weavers and Dick Gaughan. These new  Celtic musicians were someway able to increase the interest for Celtic music in a generation closer to the musical styles of popular musicians such as the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan than to the great Irish musicians of the past, such as Padraig  O'Keeffe or Willie Clancy. 

For this reason, the musicians in the Celtic bands of these recent years, even if strictly linked to their musical background, approach their music with a more "pop" oriented style, more accessible to the general public. The growing interest in Celtic music for many people, who otherwise are not very "tradition-oriented" (me  included...) comes directly from this modern approach and intelligent point of  view (5).

These are the homepages of the most important (...in my opinion) musicians of the Celtic area, by nation:

Ireland

Scotland

Brittany

Galitia

Canada

Italy

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