The Kalevala, Popular Music, and National Culture (original) (raw)

2009, Journal of Finnish Studies

This article examines the diverse and at times hard-to-discern relationship between the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, and Finnish popular music. The Kalevala, existing in a number of variations already in the nineteenth century, can be considered part of a long-term process of storytelling by singing. The printed epic is only one phase in this tradition. From this point of view, Finnish culture retains its Kalevalaic singing tradition, which has simply received a new range of features over time. We identify traces of the Kalevala in Finnish popular music, from progressive rock to parody performances, to esoteric experimentation, and to the sounds of the electric kantele, the Finnish zither. The Kalevala appears to hold a special place in Finnish heavy metal culture, which ¬– among its repertoire of mythologies – draws on the myths involved in nation building and in the emergence of Finnishness. Finnish popular music, just like the Kalevala tradition, was born in the riptide of influences from East and West. All in all, this singing tradition has played a part in producing the self-image of the Finns and, in some cases, also the image to the outside world.