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Some definitions for those playing along at home who may not know what the hell I'm on about:
* Filk: Folk music repurposed towards celebrating more youth- and niche-oriented culture, usually things like Star Trek or comics, thigs of that nature. The most popular of these groups would likely be Ookla the Mok (named after Thundarr the Barbarian's humanoid cat-like partner).
* Nerdcore: Gangsta rap-style songs that use knowledge of computers, physics, geek culture, that sort of thing as a substitute for the guns, cars, bitches and blingbling that characterize its inspiration, though certainly they find their way in at times. Better known artists of this type include MC Frontalot, MC Chris, MC Hawking and Commodore 64. This, I feel, has the most potential to crossover with more "legit" acts.
* Chipstyle & Circuit-Bending: Techno or ambient tunes produced almost exclusively using outdated electronics. For the former, devices like Gameboys and Ataris are reprogrammed to produce a tapestry of sound, sometimes, as in the case of Treewave (arguably the founder of Atari reuse), with accompanying visuals produced by the game systems. For the latter, old non-modular electronics, usually toys of some kind, are resoldered and rewired to alter their usual output into something less identifiable yet still evoking some sense memory of their original context. Reed Ghazala is considered the master of this form, but there's actually been symphonies written for orchestras of cell phones and dot matrix printers.
* Recontextualists: Oddly enough, the form that least resembles music is probably that which has the greatest public following, thanks in large part to outfits like Negativland. Following in their footsteps are up and comers like Evolution Control Committee and People Like Us. Phrases, words and statements, often culled from popular culture or broadcast media, are looped, sampled, rearranged and rejuxtaposed to either make a point or confuse, often with similarly respliced music as a backdrop. Really wicked political commentary seems to be an overwhelming theme in these, though subverting otherwise innocent source material is also a great joy. Sometimes, the greatest joy for recontextualists is to haphazardly mix together random elements and see what, if any, sense they make together; my roommate and I had some truly magical results with this while in college, fucking around in the campus radio station.
As to the question as I posed it in the summary, my answer is the former (but I imagine you've guessed that since I'm creating a thread on the topic). I'm broadly versed in much of the music scene, though admittedly that's not my area of expertise. It's tough for a guy like myself, who came to modern music later than most and whose tastes had the aforementioned radio station's library as its fertile ground, to find the right hook into some acts, even when everyone else seems to crow about them.
That's why I'm a sucker for these bizarre, experimental-type acts that traditionalists, even those who are open to a wide variety of styles, write off as mere parodies, fluff, that sort of thing. Not me. I like that I feel in on the joke in a way that inner-city kids connect with certain hiphop acts or club kids hook into the latest sounds. I suspect if these particular types that I'm into got more airplay they'd be mad popular with the ever-more mainstreamed geek demographic, but as yet most exist on the fringe, barely acknowledged.
So, agree? Disagree? Have any acts of this nature to hip me to? Are you a purist who thinks these types, for their content or their mode of creation, don't deserve a seat at the table? Put me in my place! Slap me silly! Dress me in a French maid's outfit and call me Lulu! But tell me why, messieurs et mesdames. Either shame me with your musical scrutiny or give me ammo for these freaks who want me in a French maid's outfit; they's creepy.
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