If there was an origin moment for the Revival, it was the Kingston Trio’s surprise hit song of 1958 – an old folk tune, “Tom Dooley.” Other reworkings of traditional songs followed, as well as such popular television shows as “Hootenanny,” an ABC-network folk music variety show held weekly on college campuses in 1963-64. The music supposedly “of and by the masses” had finally reached the masses. During this period, music that was created and performed by “the folk” attained mass popularity. Each new generation of folk musicians, in its way, reinvents that tradition.ĭuring the past century, the best example of this musical reinvention process was the so-called Folk Music Revival that reached its high point from the late 1950s to the end of the 1960s. Rather, folk music, like any musical genre, is a creative process: a musical approach that transmits tradition while also creating new melodies, lyrics, themes, and interpretations that remain broadly within the spirit of that tradition. Others claim that folk music, while inspired by tradition, is not limited to a fixed body of songs and melodies inherited from the past. As such, it must be preserved and passed on intact to future generations. Some argue that folk music is a precious legacy based on tradition. The same can be said for “folk music” – you know it when you hear it.ĭefining folk music is another matter. A listener can instantly identify such popular American musical genres as blues, country, rock, and hip-hop.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |