ABSTRACT
Drawing on interviews with cultural producers and advocates of various forms of pan-Europeanism, this chapter provides a tentative mapping of Neofolk—and its closely related peer, Folk Metal. The chapter frames this form of popular culture as a (trans)national phenomenon with important ramifications for the study of contemporary trends in anti-modernist “identity work” and its increasingly borderless nature by focusing on sonic, textual, and visual venerations of a “dead Europe.” This chapter aims to make an original contribution to the literature of nationalism via its focus on a comparatively new musical genre (i.e. Neofolk) and its accompanying scene to complicate the notion that contemporary nationalism is necessarily “national” in form. I do this by interrogating the ethnic, cultural, and (geo)political linkages between soundscapes, religio-philosophical orientation, thematic/lyrical content, bands’ country-of-origin, (geo)graphical representations in videos and cover art, concert tour locations, and other factors.
