The Oldest Musical Traditions

The only native population in Europe is the Sami. They have herded reindeer inside the Arctic Circle for thousands of years and are tough survival. It is not unusual in their culture for kids as young as six to assist in managing the massive, untamed herds. The Sami people now have their own parliament in their capital city of Karasjok and are both citizens of Norway and a distinct ethnic group, with self-government in the county of Finnmark. Only about 4% of the 50,000-person population regularly practices the herding lifestyle. However, contemporary Sami and Norwegian culture still heavily incorporates traditional yoiks.

The Sami yoik (or joik), a vocal ululation, is sometimes linked to Native American chanting and is said to be one of the continent's oldest continuously existing musical traditions. The compositions are extremely personal to the joiker and are seen as representing their subject matter more accurately than being mere representations of it. Sami folklore claims that Arctic fairy folk gave the expertise to their people.

The integration of the Sami joiker style with other contemporary musical genres, such as trance, is growing in popularity as the younger generation of Sami joikers continues to evolve the style from its original mumbling form. The modern yoik is a well-known symbol for the unique way of life of the Sami because cultural tourism is so vital to them.