Welsh Journals

Welsh Underground Music in the 1990s The survival of the Welsh language into the twenty-first century is a remarkable achievement. But its continued existence has only been possible through a radical rethinking of the manner in which it is propa- gated. The more traditional dialect favoured by the older generation, which retains most of the forms and practices unique to Welsh, and which contains relatively few English loan words, is now spoken by a minority. It is being replaced by a more colloquial form, one that Simon Brooks referred to as 'a young accent; the only Welsh accent that's flourishing'.2 This dialect of Welsh is the one that is in common usage by most if not all of the contemporary Welsh-language rock bands active today. It utilizes shortened forms as well as a great number of English loan words, and thus is by no means as 'pure' or 'correct' as many would wish. However, when compared with other Celtic languages such as Cornish, Irish, and Scots Gaelic, it becomes obvious that Welsh is faring relatively well, and that the proactive stance assumed by various groups of language campaigners in Wales since the mid-1960s has made a positive contribution to the current status of the language. Over the last few years there has been an unprecedented upsurge in the status of Welsh-language rock bands emerging from Wales. The higher profile for the language engendered by Welsh language activists, and legitimized by senior figures such as Gwynfor Evans, is undoubt- edly one key factor in this development. Another factor is the apparent growth in the number of Welsh speakers, as borne out by the Census figures of 2001. A further factor of particular importance was un- doubtedly the success of the so-called 'Big Five'4 the group of Welsh bands comprising the Manic Street Preachers, Catatonia, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, Stereophonics, and the Super Furry Animals all of whom achieved chart placings from the mid-1990s onwards. However, perhaps the most important element in the development of new groups has been the establishment of several new record companies. 'BeatboxTaffia': CRAIG OWEN JONES