Knowra American folk music American folk music American folk music is a diverse tradition of songs and instrumental music transmitted through communities and generations in the United States, shaped by migration, work, worship, and social change.
Oral tradition : The transmission of knowledge, stories, or art through speech, performance, and memory rather than fixed texts. Songs learned by listening and repetition change as they pass between singers and generations.
African American music : Music created and performed by African Americans, spanning traditions from spirituals and blues to jazz and hip-hop. African American musical forms and musicians shaped folk song, instrumentation, rhythm, and performance.
Work song : A song associated with labor, used to coordinate effort, ease repetitive work, or express workers’ experiences. Work songs show how music accompanied labor and voiced shared conditions.
American folk music revival : A twentieth-century movement that collected, performed, and popularized traditional and newly written folk songs in the United States. The revival turned inherited and composed songs into a visible national movement.
Ballad : A narrative song that recounts events or tells a story, often in stanzas with a recurring melody. Ballads carry historical events, legends, and local stories across communities.
British folk music : Traditional music from the peoples and regions of Great Britain, including songs, ballads, and dance tunes. British ballads and tunes traveled with immigrants and were adapted in the United States.
Protest song : A song that expresses opposition to political, social, or economic conditions. Folk performers have used familiar melodies and direct lyrics to organize dissent.
Folk music of the United States on record : Commercial recordings of American folk traditions, including field recordings and performances issued on records. Recording preserved performances while changing how songs reached audiences beyond their communities.
Call and response : A musical pattern in which one voice or group is answered by another. The pattern links solo singers and groups in work songs, spirituals, and communal performance.
Indigenous music of North America : The diverse musical traditions of Indigenous peoples across North America, rooted in distinct languages, histories, and practices. Indigenous traditions form part of the continent’s musical history, though they are distinct from settler folk traditions.
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