In its essence, folk music is music for the people — an art form inextricably intertwined with the soul of a region. Its nature is inherently visual, conjuring vivid imagery with just a single cultural descriptor. Scottish folk music brings to life a kilt, a bagpipe and swelling stretches of bright green land. Chinese folk evokes drums and dragons — loud sounds and bright colors. “American folk music,” on the other hand, brings to mind a banjo-wielding, Appalachian hippie, tall grass, rolling hills and the snowy peaks of remote mountaintops.
Folk music is as diverse as the people and countries it represents, and American folk music is as diverse as the phrase “the American experience” is; from sea shanties to spirituals to bluegrass, American folk doesn’t quite have a singular beating heart. Yet there seem to be a few common factors that stretch across the cultural spectrum of folk — making folk music so obviously folk — such as honesty, acoustic instrumentals and storytelling.
The stages of American folk music began with early folk, which spanned from the late 18th century through the early 20th century. What started off as an English rural tradition became its own form of expression when carried across the pond by settlers; that is, the Anglo-American folk tradition emerged from fiddling with English folk songs. This new American tradition included the Protestant religiosity of early North America, the abominable suffering of slavery, and the grueling physical labor that came with building a new country. Passed down through oral tradition, folk music was the outlet for American suffering: it forged community, built identity, and served as the most visceral expression of America’s beating heart.
The folk music we know today is somewhat of a long shot away from the gospels and shanties of 19th-century America, meaning that somewhere along the way, folk had to have been rebranded. This rebranding happened in the 1940’s, with a musical era coined “the American folk music revival.” At this point, American culture had begun a shift from a culture of work to one of consumerism, depression, and political turmoil; folk, thus, evolved again to center American issues. Seminal folk bands like The Weavers — led by Peter Seeger — sang about political injustices, specifically emphasizing “the common people” of America. Songs like “Which Side Are You On,” first written by activist Florence Reese in 1931 but learned and released by Peter Seeger and the folk band The Almanac Singers, speak of unjust violence towards Kentucky miners. The music of folk revivalists resonated because of its lyrical honesty and the rebellion behind the focus on the downtrodden man. Throughout this shift, folk maintained its basic structure; raw, imperfect vocals and a gently plucked guitar developed as crucial to the identity, maintaining the musical foundation of folk music. Artists like Bob Dylan followed this format at the peak of the folk revival in the ’60s and ’70s, rejecting the shallowness of rock by singing instead about injustice and relevant American issues.
This remodeled version of American folk music continued until the early 2000s and 2010s, when a resurgence — though not quite a revival — of folk occurred. In the late 1990s and early 2000s came indie-folk bands like The Mountain Goats and Neutral Milk Hotel. These bands flirted with more experimental sounds — with Neutral Milk Hotel even dipping into psychedelia in cult-classic low-quality indie-folk-rock album, In the Aeroplane over the Sea. Though The Mountain Goats and Neutral Milk Hotel never made it mainstream in any sense of the word, they only increased in popularity — mainly among teenagers and young adults — throughout the early 2000s and 2010s, inspiring future folk bands like Emil Amos’ Holy Sons to release the album I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats: All Hail West Texas in 2018.
The indie-folk of the 2010s and 2020s, however, even differs from that of the 1990s and finds its niche among an entirely different audience — teenage girls and young women. The 2020s have solidified folk as a mainstream genre, with artists like Lizzy McAlpine, Noah Kahan, Hozier and even Taylor Swift traversing the realms of indie-folk and folk-pop. While contemporary folk music retains its focus on political rebellion — with songs like “Take Me to Church” by Hozier critiquing anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments in Russia — it removes the aspect of cultural identity so ingrained in the early folk period. Contemporary folk is still very human, but it simply universalizes the human experience rather than localizes it.
I don’t necessarily see this switch as folk losing its culture; rather, I see contemporary folk as a means for more universal connection. Folk is a genre that connects. People find comfort in the human stories shared in contemporary folk music. And, as long as we maintain our human identity, folk music will remain a dynamic and mutable reflection of the human experience.
Yaelin Hough is a freshman in the College of Arts & Sciences. She can be reached at [email protected].