SwallowMusic

Celtic music is a very broad term that does not really have a specific meaning as such. However, when most people use the term Celtic music they are referring to folk music, typically of Irish or Scottish origins.  Celtic music has garnered some significant popularity if recent years thanks to fusion of traditional Celtic melodies and music with contemporary music by a number of artists. The Pogues are one such band who are especially well known for incorporating elements of traditional Irish music into their punk sound.

Traditional folk music from Ireland and Scotland is very often billed or labelled as ‘Celtic music’, although this definition is not always strictly appropriate. The term is also frequently used, erroneously, to describe a significant portion of the traditional folk music from many Western European countries even though many of the people from these nations certainly could not be classified as being of Celtic origin.  The term Celtic music has now become more of a term for marketing music than specifically describing the sound of the music and is it very common to see any music that has any elements of traditional Irish folk music incorporated into being billed as ‘Celtic music’.

If one were to be pedantic about the use of the term Celtic music then it would be appropriate to describe even contemporary music made by people of Celtic descent as Celtic music, the term need not exclusively be applied to folk music.