Is Country Music the Same as Folk Music?
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Is country music the same as folk music? It’s a question that has been debated for years, and there’s no easy answer. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at the similarities and differences between these two genres of music.
Country Music
Country music is a style of music that began in the southern United States in the 1920s. It is a mix of folk music, blues, and even some pop music. The style of music is often about life in the rural south and the working class. It often tells stories about love, heartbreak, and other aspects of life.
Origins
Country music is a genre of American popular music that originated in the rural regions of the Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from genres such as folk music and blues. Country music often consists of ballads and dance tunes with generally simple forms, folk lyrics, and harmonies mostly accompanied by string instruments such as banjos, electric and acoustic guitars, steel guitars (such as pedal steels and dobros), and fiddles as well as harmonicas. Blues influences are particularly evident in the electric guitar work. Early artists relied heavily on earlier Celtic music influences from Europe being brought to the Americas by immigrants. Scottish and Irish folk ballads (and their American variants) were extremely popular during the 19th century eventually giving way to more lyrically driven songs by the end of the century.
Characteristics
There are a number of things that make country music unique. The first is the instrumentation. Country music is mostly played on acoustic string instruments, like guitars, banjos, and fiddles. This gives it a very different sound from other genres like rock or pop.
Another characteristic of country music is the subject matter of the songs. Country songs often deal with themes like love, heartbreak, and loss. They also often tell stories about real life experiences and problems. This makes them very relatable to many people.
Finally, country music is known for its twangy, nasal vocal style. This is a result of the way that country singers produce their vocals. They use a technique called yodeling which gives their voices a distinctive sound.
Folk Music
Country music and folk music are often confused as the same genre of music. While they do have some similarities, there are also many differences between the two. Country music is a genre of music that developed in the southern United States in the 1920s. Folk music, on the other hand, is a genre of music that developed in the United Kingdom in the late 19th century.
Origins
Folk music includes both traditional music and the genre that evolved from it during the 20th century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted orally, music with unknown composers, or music performed by custom over a long period of time. It has been contrasted with commercial and classical styles. The term originated in the 19th century, but is often applied to music older than that. Some types of folk music are also called world music.
Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted orally, music with unknown composers, or music performed by custom over a long period of time. It has been contrasted with commercial and classical styles. The term originated in the 19th century, but is often applied to music older than that.
Characteristics
Characteristics of folk music include traditional musical forms and instruments, anonymous composition, and a lack of formal musical notation. Folk music is typically passed down orally from one generation to the next. The term “folk music” can be used to refer to music from a specific geographic region or music that has been passed down within a specific culture.
Country music is a type of folk music that originated in the southern United States. Country music is characterized by its use of guitars and other stringed instruments, its focus on stories about the lives of average people, and its traditional song structures.
Similarities
Although Folk music is thought to have originated in the 16th century, Country music has only been around since the 1920s. While the two genres share some similarities, they are quite different. Here are some of the similarities and differences between Country music and Folk music.
Though the two genres have grown and changed in opposite directions over the years, they share a common origin in the music of the early20th century. Both folk and country music developed from a combination of traditional music from Europe, work songs, spirituals, and ballads brought over by immigrants. In the United States, these musical traditions blended together and evolved in different ways in different regions of the country.
In the Appalachian Mountains, for example, fiddle music and bluegrass developed from a mix of Scottish, Irish, and English influences. Meanwhile, on the West Coast and in the Southwest, Mexican folk traditions exerted a strong influence on early country music. The influence of these various musical traditions can still be heard in both folk and country music today.
Subject Matter
Loretta Lynn, one of country music’s earliest and most successful artists, once said that “country music is three chords and the truth.” At its core, country music is a simple genre. It relies on basic musical structures and instrumentation and its songs often tell stories about real-life experiences and emotions. Folk music, on the other hand, can be a bit more complex. While it also often tells stories about real life, it can be harder to pin down sonically. Folk music has been described as the “traditional and contemporary music of the people who share certain commonalities such as language, culture, ethnicity, oral tradition, history or geography.”
Both genres are rooted in Americana and both have a long history of telling the stories of working-class people. But while country music has always been commercialized and mass-produced, folk music has tended to stay underground. Country music is now one of the most popular genres in the United States, while folk music has a smaller but loyal following.
Differences
Country music is a form of popular music that originated in the southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from the folk music of the Appalachian Mountains and the music of the rural South. Folk music is the traditional music of a people or nation, passed down orally from generation to generation.
Instrumentation
One of the easiest ways to tell country music apart from folk music is by the instrumentation that is used. Country music is typically characterized by the use of steel guitars, fiddles, banjos, and harmonicas while folk music makes use of acoustic guitars, double bass, and Sometimes mandolins.
Popularity
Differences in popularity between folk and country music can be seen in a variety of ways. One way to measure popularity is to look at album sales. In 2012, the top selling folk album was Mumford & Sons’ Babel, which sold 600,000 copies. The top selling country album was Carrie Underwood’s Blown Away, which sold 1.3 million copies. However, it’s important to note that these figures only reflect sales of physical albums – they don’t include sales of digital albums or singles, which are now the most common way people purchase music.
Another way to measure popularity is to look at radio play. In 2012, the top five most played country songs were all by female artists, while the top five most played folk songs were all by male artists. This difference is even more pronounced when you look at the top 40 songs of each genre – only two female artists made the list for country music, while eight made the list for folk music.
These differences in popularity can be partly attributed to the different audiences that these genres appeal to. Country music has a much wider appeal than folk music – according to a 2012 Nielson report, 52% of country music listeners are women, while only 36% of folk music listeners are women. This difference is likely due to the fact that country music is more accessible than folk music – it’s easier to find on radio stations and streaming services, and it’s more likely to be played at mainstream events like weddings and parties.
