Bardcore, medieval folk, medieval metal. Toss a coin to the troubadours of today, performing musical necromancy and conjuring a cultural renaissance.<\/p>\n
In the\u00a0digital age we\u00a0live in, dominated by screens of all sizes,\u00a0there\u00a0has been an increasing wave of nostalgia and longing for the good old days,\u00a0free from\u00a0the grips of\u00a0technological prisons and\u00a0modern-day\u00a0dystopia.\u00a0That yearning is\u00a0perhaps most\u00a0evident\u00a0in music. While many have been revisiting the era of Y2K and the mid-2010s, others have turned the clock back much further with\u00a0Bardcore\u00a0and\u00a0Taverncore.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bardcore\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0exactly\u00a0music from the medieval era. It\u2019s the reimagining of modern songs\u00a0with a\u00a0Renaissance\u00a0twist, achieved by employing instruments\u00a0from the Middle Ages\u00a0(real and virtual),\u00a0such as the lute,\u00a0with the lyrics changed to sound a lot like what one today would imagine a minstrel might sing. There\u00a0is a lot of \u201cthee\u201d,\u00a0\u201cthou\u201d,\u00a0and words ending with\u00a0\u201c-est\u201d\u00a0combined with fanciful imitations of early modern English.\u00a0Not really\u00a0accurate,\u00a0but all in\u00a0good fun.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The birth of\u00a0Bardcore\u00a0happened during the heyday of the plague. Not the black plague,\u00a0of course,\u00a0but our equivalent\u00a0of it:\u00a0the COVID-19 outbreak,\u00a0circa 2020.\u00a0Perhaps inspired by our own Dark Ages,\u00a0the minstrels of today took to streaming platforms like YouTube,\u00a0uploading covers of every song under the sun,\u00a0from The Rolling Stones\u2019 \u201cPaint It Black\u201d to Foster\u00a0the\u00a0People\u2019s \u201cPumped Up Kicks\u201d,\u00a0Lady Gaga\u2019s \u201cBad Romance\u201d and Metallica\u2019s \u201cEnter Sandman\u201d.\u00a0There\u2019s\u00a0nary a tune that the modern bards cannot strum in a manner that turns back time.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Though the plague era has been attributed as the start of\u00a0Bardcore\u00a0as we know it,\u00a0similar takes of songs from our century\u00a0had already existed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Belarusian\u00a0medieval folk\u00a0band Stary Olsa\u00a0released\u00a0Medieval Classic Rock\u00a0in 2016, an album\u00a0comprising\u00a0rock covers\u00a0of\u00a0both vocal\u00a0and instrumental tracks,\u00a0including one very ambitious mashup of Nirvana\u2019s \u201cSmells Like Teen Spirit\u201d\u00a0with\u00a0\u201cAi Vis Lo Lop\u201d, a French folk song from the High Medieval Period.\u00a0While the lyrics\u00a0remain\u00a0unchanged,\u00a0unlike modern\u00a0Bardcore, the spirit is very much the same.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sting, meanwhile,\u00a0took a different direction\u00a0with his\u00a02006\u00a0album\u00a0Songs from the Labyrinth.\u00a0Done in collaboration with\u00a0Bosnian lutenist Edin Karamazov, the album featured 23 songs by English\u00a0composer\u00a0John Dowland (1563-1626).\u00a0Dowland\u2019s\u00a0compositions, though often laced with a melancholic tone,\u00a0were wildly popular,\u00a0cementing\u00a0his position as one of the most influential lutenists of his time.\u00a0His personal life was as dramatic as his music:\u00a0he even\u00a0dabbled in espionage\u00a0for\u00a0English\u00a0statesman\u00a0and spymaster,\u00a0Sir\u00a0Robert Cecil,\u00a0during his time\u00a0in Denmark and France.\u00a0Whilst in Italy,\u00a0a needle of suspicion on account of Catholic treason was pointed at Dowland.\u00a0In a bid to save face,\u00a0he wrote to Sir Robert Cecil, vehemently\u00a0denying the accusations. It is these letters that Sting reads aloud, interspersed with the songs played on the lute and the archlute.\u00a0Essentially,\u00a0Sting brought Renaissance music to a contemporary pop audience.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
There\u00a0is,\u00a0in fact,\u00a0an entire\u00a0range of\u00a0sub-genres\u00a0inspired by\u00a0variations of early\u00a0music, from medieval folk to medieval metal,\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0been around\u00a0since the mid-1960s\u00a0(at the time,\u00a0called baroque-pop).\u00a0These musical offshoots\u00a0employed styles\u00a0from early music such as musical modes\u00a0and\u00a0layered harmonies,\u00a0coupled with the use of traditional instruments\u00a0alongside those of the\u00a0modern base genre.\u00a0Medieval folk-rock groups like Blackmore\u2019s Night (fronted by Deep Purple\u2019s Ritchie Blackmore and singer Candice Night), the German group\u00a0Ougenweide\u00a0and German medieval metal band\u00a0Tanzwut\u00a0are\u00a0all examples of\u00a0modern musicians taking cues and inspiration from medieval texts and instruments to create an amalgamation of the old and the new.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Unlike the days of yore, when one had to go to the local town square or the nearest tavern to listen to the minstrels pluck at lyre strings, we now have tiny pocket devices that allow us to hear them at our earliest convenience.\u00a0There are thousands of\u00a0bardcore\u00a0musicians covering popular songs with comment sections mimicking what patrons of old used to say.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, in the world of video games,\u00a0where the fantasy genre flourishes, attention to detail and the need for immersion is\u00a0a must. Besides the ambient\u00a0noise and rich atmosphere, the background score is what\u00a0allows the player to really step into the game\u2019s world.\u00a0Games like\u00a0The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt, Skyrim, Baldur\u2019s Gate 3, and Dragon Age\u00a0all\u00a0feature\u00a0medieval-inspired fantasy music. They all also\u00a0have\u00a0several\u00a0bard\u00a0characters,\u00a0who are either\u00a0getting into trouble,\u00a0minding their own business,\u00a0or looking for the next story to spin into song. Traverse the\u00a0land\u00a0in any of these games, and\u00a0you\u2019ll\u00a0find yourself\u00a0thinking\u00a0you\u2019ve\u00a0been transported to another age.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
With popular fantasy-based tabletop role-playing games such as\u00a0Dungeons & Dragons\u00a0gaining ground, Game Masters are\u00a0spoilt for choice while\u00a0creating an ambience for their players. The plethora of pseudo-medieval songs adds\u00a0the\u00a0much-needed touch of humor during a brief respite after an exhausting dungeon crawl.\u00a0Earlier, hunting for a good background score for a DnD session meant repurposing the same audio tracks from fantasy films and video games. But with the advent of\u00a0Bardcore, no two sessions have a repeat playlist.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
One can also\u00a0listen to this music\u00a0in real life;\u00a0Renaissance fairs or \u2018ren-fairs\u2019\u00a0(most common in the U.S.)\u00a0as they are popularly called,\u00a0saw a resurgence after 2020, prompting the bards of today to actually perform on stage in full medieval regalia,\u00a0replete with lyres, lutes and\u00a0psaltery\u00a0while fairgoers\u00a0watch enraptured\u00a0making merry. Originally, ren-fairs began as a safe performance space for those in the creative fields who had been blacklisted by Hollywood during the Red Scare. The first ren-fair happened all the way back in 1963.\u00a0In present times, it is\u00a0more of an attempt\u00a0to escape from the real world and finally embrace the dream jobs of the\u00a0Dark\u00a0Ages, jesters and knights abound!\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Live Action Role Play (LARP) events take things a step further from ren-fairs. Taking place\u00a0mainly in\u00a0Europe and the U.S., LARP lasts for multiple days at a time\u00a0and, depending on the setting,\u00a0can take place even in wooded areas or ancient castles, where one takes on the role of a fictional character of their choice. Throughout the course of the event, you are not allowed to break character. LARP\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0strictly confined to a medieval setting\u00a0either\u00a0(Vampire:\u00a0The\u00a0Masquerade has LARP groups all over with timelines shifting from the Dark Ages to the Renaissance and the turn of the century). Among all the knights, druids,\u00a0and\u00a0peasants, bards also make up a lot of the player base, often resulting in impromptu concerts during a wind-down session. Today, ren-fairs and LARP\u00a0are\u00a0niche events that have now become more mainstream thanks to social media.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Perhaps it\u00a0is the combination of easy accessibility and the desire for a break from the fast-paced lives we lead today that has prompted a resurgence of medieval tunes. In a world where everything feels artificial,\u00a0cold,\u00a0and generated by machines lacking that much-needed soul, we all yearn for the warmth of a tavern to enjoy a glass of mead, and the slow, comforting playing of a troubadour on tangible instruments in the background.\u00a0<\/p>\n