What is this thing we call Folk music?

What is folk music? Such music is not discussed or regarded much with this generation of adolescent music lovers. In a musical age that breeds of music produced by technology in a studio, the cognizance of folk music to the adolescent music listener is elderly folks playing the banjo out in the woods of the south. But what is it really? There are so many perception of it, but one thing that can be agreed upon is that folk music is that the concept of it is "...a living tradition, and that it's all about all the stuff that is happening around you" ( 9 Dunaway /Beer). It has been handed down from generation to generation taking new from as it travels into a new set of hands.   1.

The foundation of the music is part of  expressive culture that has been used since the time of our ancestors. It is a form of articulation, it allowed for people to evoke emotions beliefs, hopes, love, and in our ancestors times; a way to state they new their place in society. it can take the form of a woman of an African tribe teaching her children songs while they worked, to sports fanatics chanting rhythmically to their favorite team (Slobin), or a rambling man singing songs of life by the campfire. Folk music is of the folk, it is forged by the people of the land and take any shape. Everyone can sing in some way, therefore there are folk singers everywhere (Slobin), we are our all folk singers but the singers that an intoxicating voice are the ones that draw groups together for the  is aesthetically pleasing to the ear. The beautiful noise "...enters the ear as complex sound patterns, then turns into emotion and meaning in the brain" (13 Slobin), folk music (with any music) to the power to fly over barriers that divide one group from another. Folk music is more than just notes on a sheet of paper or the strumming of a guitar, it is words that are held "...in the moisture of the breath that carries them" (5 Slobin). It is of the folk and it is continually changing like the people that make it, it is purely the expression of the people and can not be categorized into one way or genre, nor can it be defined in one way because it is held in the perspective minds of the folk.     2.


It is tradition, and such tradition is passed down by word of mouth creating an oral history. Oral history can hold great value in regards to the information is genuine, it is not of a text book or of one person. As the information is put into another hands more is added to it and new interpretation can be used, Therefore the information is  genuine like the folk music itself, But alas the down side of containing information is that it can be misconstrued or even misinterpreted cause the information to be tainted for the next set of hands to hold it.   3.
One must keep in mind with "...all historical sources should be treated with equal skepticism. Such skepticism should also be turned on themselves as interviewer". In others words, you take all information that is given to you as it is and have your perspective of it and you should be open to all perspective. You must also expect that your interpretation should be and that other will be skeptical of your interpretation of the music.But you must see other peoples perceptive of the music in order to amplify your understanding. Folk music is express and in held in different perspectives of different folks of the land.

1.  http://www.bluesworld.com/fa29534.jpgsound
2. http://www.noorculturalcentre.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/arabic-folk-music-main.jpg
3. http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02256/folk-music_2256313b.jpg