On Week 1 we explored the tripartite distinction between “classical,” “folk” and “popular” music. In this course we focus mostly on the last two due to the fact that these are the two categories that most people actually “experienced.” Folk and popular music are within what some scholars call “vernacular” music : everyday, informal musical practices located outside the official arena of high culture—the conservatory, the concert hall, and the high church (Cohen et al 2014: 39). Folk music is orally transmitted, made for and by the community. Popular music is music of wide appeal, designed to be accessible to a lot of people (with little or no musical training) and to be circulated via mass media (radio, tv, Youtube!). “Historians and musicologists now agree that America’s most distinctive musical expressions are found, or have roots in, its vernacular music” (ibid).
This week we will focus on folk music and on the contributions of the “European stream” in American popular music.
Read
Gain familiarity with the main concepts around American Folk Music and the characteristics of Anglo American Ballads with this chapter from the OER “Music, Its Language, History and Culture.”
Analyze
Take a look at the folk songs and ballads in the Winsconsin Song Collection (1937-1946) and listen to one that sparks your attention. You will find various themes that were of interest to people living almost 100 years ago, including the sinking of the Titanic, an encounter with a 20-pound dog, and stories of love and heartbreak!
Try to write down any lyrics that you can hear and sing them back in a simple fashion (just a few notes). Ask yourself: who do you think the audience for this song may be?
Read
Gain a more complex understanding of the relationship of folklore and authenticity with this resource from Hearing the Americas (Creative Commons by Attribution License 4.0) developed by George Mason University.
As you look through this resource think about this important question: How may the category of folk music, and the kinds of songs that primarily interested old song collectors, be related to race? How may these songs portray a somewhat artificial rendering of the history of “folk” music in America?
Despite the fact that communal singing and song-making was fluid and dynamic in the south of the United States (Filene 2000), the recording industry played a huge role in distinguishing these music along racial lines. Learn about “Race Records” here.
Watch
Learn about the importance of the banjo for American folk music, and use this as an example of the kind of erasure that Black Americans received from part of early folklorists. Next week, when we take an in-depth look at how profoundly the African diaspora in the United States has shaped popular music around the world.
Explore further
Watch this mini-documentary with a brief history of Black artists in folk, country and rock and roll music made by Black Music Archive.
Suggested activity:
What do you think is the most “authentic” American music? If you had to take only one piece of music to another planet to show others what the United States sounds like, what would you choose and why?
