Why would Celtic women performers invoke a dead colonialist English poet in their airs and dance sets? This article provides close readings of Shakespearean elements in the musical compositions of gold- and platinum-selling artists Loreena McKennitt, Ensemble Galilei, and Méav. It assesses the archaicising musical language, structural reshapings, and ekphrastic elements as signals of ‘restitutional creativity’ and trans-temporal collaboration. It also analyses the reception of these works by fans and critics, responses replete with invocations of tradition and of timelessness. Like the fanfic-producing enthusiasts of Johnathan Pope's Shakespeare's Fans, the fans for Celtic music capitalise on their awareness of Shakespearean elements in this music to display personal expertise. In so doing, they enhance their own belonging within the Celtic music community.

This article considers the parameters and implications of the look of 1960s girl groups such as the Marvelettes, the Shirelles and the Shangri-Las through an examination of approximately two hundred images taken from title pages for songs, from LP covers, and from ads and publicity photos. An overwhelming majority of these visual images depict the members of an ensemble as equal and visually interchangeable, for the members dressed in the same clothes and accessories, sported the same hair style and stood in the same pose. This uniformity supported the chatty teenage dialogue which typified the girl group lyrics. Perhaps more importantly, it also invited the audience member to identify herself with the members of the group. Such a message of belonging was an important part of a marketing strategy aimed at the increasingly multiracial teen market of the period.