A History of Folk

Folk music has been around for hundreds of years and was used as a way of communicating. Not many people could read or write so music was the easiest way of teaching or telling a story as everyone could interpret it, it was accessible to the masses. "The term Folk music came from England, where they took the German word “volk”, meaning people, and applied it to mean the common people of England, the illiterate peasants who passed on stories and legends through song as they were unable to publish books." (M.B, 2007). It was seen as an expression of their lives and has been a major factor in helping historians uncover facts about communities across the world. The term "folk music" wasn't used until the 19th century when it began to popularise as a  form of entertainment for people rather than a teaching and storytelling tool. 

Folk music became relatively popular at the start of the romantic period. Josef Haydn and Beethoven were two famous composers who made arrangements of Folk Music. In their time composers were highly respected by the upper class people in society so by them arranging Folk Music they helped to progress the popularity and made it an acceptable genre of music for all classes in society to listen to at the time. "Many also composed traditional Folk dances which were virtually indistinguishable from the dances and songs sung by the common people." (M.B, 2007).

After this time Folk Music began to become less commercially popular until the start of the 20th century when it is believed the first Folk Music festival took place in 1928 in Asheville, Carolina. The popularity kept on growing through the 30's with Jimmy Rodgers helping and in the 40's with Burl Ives until it reached its peak in the 1950s. Big groups like The Weavers, took Folk Music and added their own stylistic elements to it. This stylised folk snowballed until in the 1960's it emerged finally as Folk Rock which was famously popular with the Beatles.

During the 1960's a war broke out in Vietnam which sparked musicians to write protest songs about peace and civil rights. Some people may say that this music was Folk Rock, however, at the same time it is almost the opposite to true Folk Music. Some musicians viewed it as "anti-folk" based on the idea that Liberal Politics reduces the importance of ethnicity, which is an essential part of Folk Music. Taking this into consideration means that protest music is not folk music in any sense.

By the time the mid 1970's came the folk music revival had almost died out and was not thought of again until the 1990's. This later revival, however, was not as progressive as the latter. During the 70's and 80's bands still continued to use elements of folk music helping it carry on through to modern day. Although folk music isn't as popular as when it was at its peak there are still successful folk musicians in modern day and it can still be used in a traditional sense of teaching and story telling.