In the 1920s there was a growing interest in country music, and bluegrass was one of the genres in hillbilly music that caught the attention all over the country. Known for the unique guitar sound, religious and gentle ballads, and mountain singing practices, the Carter Family is considered to be one of the great representatives of the bluegrass music in the Appalachian region. Loved by the audience all over the country, they established a “standard” sound that people would expect from bluegrass music. Taking a deeper look into the genre, almost all of the bluegrass groups are formed by solely white people. Why there were no traces of other races in the region being involved in the music? As the listener could imagine on the good old days and pretty scenery depicted in the bluegrass ballads, very little details on the lives of the people living in the present were heard from the songs. Bluegrass music is not a genre that provides listeners a genuine image of the musical and social landscape of the Appalachian region, but the commercialized music genre that is created by the white Appalachian residents for the whites in the whole United State America using newly-developed broadcast and commercial recording technology.
In the 1930s, the United States was recovering from the Great Depression, and the urban audience needed products that would bring comfort and get-away opportunities. At the same time, radio broadcasting became more common in the country, bringing affordable entertainment to the public. In one account, ordinary southerners would listen to the radio on Saturday night as “there wasn’t nothing else doing.” Producers travelled in the South, including the Appalachian region, to record the rich, local, and traditional mus...
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After reading the play “Songcatcher”, by Darby Fitzgerald, as well as looking at an interview done with Evie Mark, their stories revealed the same key concepts; the dilemmas they face while trying to revive Native American Music. Both of these men felt as if they needed to prove who they were to everyone around them. Making the journey to find the music from inside them a very personal one. The prime focuses in each are the struggles they face to revive the music passed down through their cultures history. They also show the persistence they have to “rekindle the fire” or the love music, within today’s younger Native generation. Both stories are inspirational to the identity crisis within these nations.
Although folk music played a big role in most of these artists’ performances, folk links back to the blues, and is similar...
Connie’s choice of music, rock music, adamantly exemplifies the misconception of the minority which is then taken advantage of due to the lack of maturity and experience in the American culture. When Connie returned back home after a feud with her mother, she turns on the radio and listen to a record of Bobby King where she calmly relaxes and bathes in the music. Joyce Carol Oates writes, “She sat on the edge of her bed, barefoot, and listened for an hour and a half to a program called XYZ Sunday Jamboree, record after record of hard, fast, shrieking songs, she sang along with, interspersed by exclamations from “Bobby King”….And Connie paid close attention herself, bathed in a glow of slow-pulsed joy that seemed to rise mysteriously out of the music itself and lay languidly about the airless little room, breathed in and breathed out with each gentle rise and fall out of her chest” (p.2-para.5). Thi...
A sample overview of the history of bluegrass music follows. It should be brief but comprehensive, as it may also be the introduction of the music to teachers as a study guide before or after an in school presentation or they may include this information in a history of social studies discussion if a program presentation is not possible.
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Williams, Michael Ann. "Folklife." Ed. Richard A. Straw and H. Tyler Blethen. High Mountains Rising: Appalachia in Time and Place. Chicago: University of Illinois, 2004. 135-146. Print.
It was once called “the people’s music”, and “the delight of children (Koenig).” America’s development of ragtime is no doubt a representation of the blending of different cultures and influences. Germanic instrument’s influence on ragtime was a result of the development of new instruments overtime, the availability of new musical instruments to African Americans, and America’s significant blending of diverse cultural sounds.
The First example of someone challenging this stereotype is Perry Como According to Biggers Como first learned his ballads “in his native Appalachian mill town of Canonsburg”. (Biggers, 7) Perry Como achieved the first ever Golden record recorded by the Recording Industry association of America. While Como was not the last artist or musician to come out of Appalachia his achievements and contributions show challenge the stereotype that Appalachian live are a people without art. Another Appalachian artist named Simone who was an African American Pianist. She became one of the all-time great Pianist and help further the soul music genre. According to Biggers ‘Despite their origins and influences, Simone and Como were not considered Appalachian Musicians” This is a sign of how the during their life the stereotype of Appalachians affected them. Even though they
Both the American and Irish folk music revivals came at interesting, tense times in both countries, and have many similarities; the often political sentiments expressed through the music influenced many socio-political movements at the time, and the revivals had far-reaching and widespread effects on the music and culture then and now. While the American folk music revival is better well-known (at least in the United States), it is interesting to learn about how folk music has been revived elsewhere and how the movements reviving the music share many
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By the late 1920’s, radio shows had rapidly increased in number with content spanning across multiple genres to accommodate specific consumer tastes. Westerns, murder mysteries, children’s shows, romances, soap operas, and comedies grew more sophisticated with carefully orchestrated plots, evocative soundtracks, and dynamic dialog. Syndicated radio shows, such as Amos ‘n’ Andy, entertained the nation. The nationwide popularity and mass consumption of programs like Amos ‘n’ Andy cultivated a consumer connection, obfuscating the “regional differences in dialect, language, music, and even consumer taste”
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