Folk Music Artists: A Brief History of Folk Music

American folk music is a broad musical genre that includes traditional music from an array of populations and ethnic groups.

In the eastern United States, many folk songs have international origins. Settlers from England, Scotland, and Ireland helped shape the music of Appalachia, sometimes re-appropriating melodies from the British Isles. In the South, enslaved Africans and their descendants brought distinctive chants and rhythms to work songs, sung to pass the time.

Traditional folk music includes several genres, such as traditional Appalachian music, bluegrass, railroad songs, protest songs, cowboy songs, sea shanties, jug music, and more. At many points in United States history, folk songs have been part of mainstream culture, sometimes even constituting the popular music of their era.

America's folk music traditions have steadily evolved over the course of the nation's history.

• Work songs of enslaved people: Enslaved West Africans composed work songs that propelled them through the painful labor in Southern fields, using a call-and-response tradition and distinctive rhythms from Africa. Following emancipation, melodies from the fields formed the basis of gospel spirituals. Eventually, these same traditions inspired twentieth-century blues musicians.
• White folk tradition’s roots in Great Britain and Ireland: Folk songs from these traditions often involved ballads, songs that tell a story. English, Scottish, and Irish traditions helped crystalize the music of Appalachia.
• French settlers’ unique sound: French settlers also helped craft the traditional Cajun music and zydeco of Louisiana.
• Work songs traveled: Other folk music sprung out of work songs, from the railroads and mines to the sea shanties of working boats. In the West, cowboy songs sprang from the mouths of men who worked the range. Many were of Anglo-American ancestry, but others had Spanish and Mexican origins.
• Folk music became mainstream: In the 1930s, The Carter Family popularized folk music through recordings such as "Can the Circle Be Unbroken." This launched a multi-decade period of fame for the Carter Family and helped sow the seeds for mainstream country music.
• Folk music popularized in the 1960s: Through mass media, numerous folk groups brought decades of traditional music into pop culture with the folk music revival, which had ties to the Civil Rights Movement. Popular folk singers of the era included Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, John Denver, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrie, Simon & Garfunkel, Joni Mitchell, and Peter, Paul and Mary, which formed in New York. Many of these artists built on the foundation the Carter Family laid.
• Contemporary folk remains popular: A vibrant folk music scene has endured deep into the twenty-first century, with acts originating everywhere from Los Angeles or Chicago to Virginia or Tennessee. Folk musicians like Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, Old Crow Medicine Show, and Nickel Creek have kept the tradition alive.

Across its many subgenres, such as folk rock and alternative folk, folk music has several unifying elements, including:

1. 1. Acoustic instruments: Non-electrified instruments drive most folk music. These include acoustic guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, double bass, and hand percussion.
2. 2. English language lyrics: With the exception of traditional Cajun music, most American folk groups sang in English. Some lyrics, like those of Bob Dylan, delved into social justice. Others, like progressive folk singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, were intensely personal. Other folk artists, like the Kingston Trio, covered older songs.
3. 3. Emphasis on regional authenticity: Folk music varies greatly by region, and most regional folk bands are faithful to their local traditions. This helps explain why the bluegrass of southwest Virginia sounds so distinctive from the sea shanties of New Bedford, Massachusetts or the Black American spirituals of South Carolina.

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