Tag Archives: History of American Popular Music

Folk music, on the surface

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I seem to like folk music a lot. This is a more recent discovery for me, and I’m questioning what it is about it that I like. I was interested in the 70’s Singer/Songwriters that were discussed in class last week, probably mostly for the reason that they stem from folk. I revisited Carol King’s album Tapestry, and so far I enjoy it, but for surface level reasons- because it has folk-sounding elements (i.e. piano-lead; acoustic guitar presence; poetic lyrics but in everyday language; storytelling or personal themes in the lyrics). It sounds homey to me for some reason.

I have a “folk” playlist on Spotify, and because I was curious about which subcategories they are actually in, I looked them up on Wikipedia to see how their genres were labelled (and to see if I was wrong). “Indie Folk” came up for the majority of my favorites: Iron and Wine, The Milk Carton Kids, Mumford & Sons, The Oh Hellos, and Radical Face. There were some different ones- The Wailin’ Jennys, a Canadian group, came up as “Bluegrass/folk”, and Sandra McCracken, a Christian singer, got “Americana/folk/gospel”. Trace Bundy is another big one on my playlist, but I’m not sure if he counts as folk because his music is just acoustic guitar instrumentals. I’d have to listen to the songs more to pick out styles. Anyway, it doesn’t surprise me to find that there are dozens of subcategories stemming from folk. This creates a lot of variety which I enjoy.

Reasons I like the music are pretty simple: I just enjoy the mellowness of the sound and the acoustic-driven style. This seems pretty surface-level though. I seem to just like the way the music sounds without much regard for what the lyrics are talking about. Not that there’s anything wrong with listening to music just for the sound of it. I just think its important to note that, when getting to know another genre, it’s easy to associate it with preconceived stereotypes. Like for me, when I hear a bluegrass song, I might see countryside imagery in my head and find that relaxing while the lyrics could be about something totally different.

Song Presentation: Larry Norman – “The Great American Novel”

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1. I was born and raised an orphan in a land that once was free
In a land that poured its love out on the moon;
And I grew up in the shadows of your silos filled with grain
But you never helped to fill my empty spoon

2. And when I was ten you murdered law with courtroom politics
And you learned to make a lie sound just like truth;
But I know you better now and I don’t fall for all your tricks
And you’ve lost the one advantage of my youth

3. You kill a black man at midnight just for talking to your daughter
Then you make his wife your mistress and you leave her without water;
And the sheet you wear upon your face is the sheet your children sleep on
At every meal you say a prayer; you don’t believe but still you keep on

(Refrain) And your money says in God we trust
But it’s against the law to pray in school;
You say we beat the Russians to the moon
And I say you starved your children to do it

4. You are far across the ocean in a war that’s not your own
And while you’re winning theirs, you’re gonna lose the one at home;
Do you really think the only way to bring about the peace
Is to sacrifice your children and kill all your enemies?

5. The politicians all make speeches while the news men all take note
And they exaggerate the issues as they shove them down our throats;
Is it really up to them whether this country sinks or floats?
Well I wonder who would lead us if none of us would vote

(Instrumental/piano solo)

6. Well my phone is tapped and my lips are chapped from whispering through the fence
You know every move I make, or is that just coincidence?
Well you try to make my way of life a little less like jail
If I promise to make tapes and slides and send them through the mail

(Refrain) And your money says in God we trust
But it’s against the law to pray in school;
You say we beat the Russians to the moon
And I say you starved your children to do it
You say all men are equal, all men are brothers
Then why are the rich more equal than others?
Don’t ask me for the answer, I’ve only got one:
That a man leaves his darkness when he follows the Son

Exploring English Folk Rock

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As I was growing up, my family exposed me to many 70’s-90’s rock bands. One of them was Steeleye Span, an English folk rock band from the 70s. I hardly knew anything about them, only that their album “All Around My Hat” is ingrained in my childhood memories because it was a frequent roadtrip CD choice with my family as I was growing up. I had always liked the bounciness of the song “The Hard Times of Old England” and would ask for them to replay “Gamble Gold (Robin Hood)” because I liked the medieval-ish sound of the instruments. Recently I wondered, how did they get this CD? (because it was different from the rest of my family’s music library) It was probably an influence by my grandparents, who are lovers of 60s/70s rock, the Steeleye album being a favorite in their vinyl collection.

When learning about European ballads a few weeks ago and hearing “Barbary Allen” for the first time, I was reminded of Steeleye’s song “Black Jack Davey,” a ballad based on an old English tale about a rich girl running away with a gypsie man. After googling this song, I learned that Bob Dylan and many other folk singers have also made song versions using this story.
In my google search to learn more background info about Steeleye Span, I read that they formed in 1969 and are considered part of the music of the British Folk Revival. Their album All Around My Hat is their 8th album, and apparently their most successful, with the song “All Around My Hat” charting number 7 on UK Albums Chart and number 143 in the U.S. in 1975. Their popularity went down after the 70s, probably because of changes in audiences’ interests.

I still love the album to this day; mostly for nostalgic reasons because of those roadtrip memories; but I’ve always found something enjoyable about the music style. I don’t know exactly what- maybe because the lyrics/themes of the song had a medieval-era feel, while the folk rock sound made the songs flavorful and catchy—and, I always enjoyed the blend of the vocalists’ harmonies.

Here is a link to “All Around My Hat”. I had never watched a video of the band before, so this was fun to see.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRZ_Va4niUs

Is self-publishing a better option for musicians today?

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So I was thinking about the music industry and how I should know more about it.
What I found myself wondering about was changes in the music industry. Changes caused by culture, trends, and advances in technology; actually, what I’m specifically interested in is changes in the way musicians are working now, as I am hearing about more artists (musicians, vloggers, YouTubers, webcomic writers, authors, etc.) now working independently from big companies. Or in other words, self-publishing.

One of my favorite hard rock groups, Red, just recently announced changes to their career plans–they have dropped their record label that had sold their music for the past 12 years (which was a Sony group I think), and now they are producing on their own. They re-made their website, as well as created a page on GoFundMe.com so that fans can support them. So one thing that will change is how often they will release songs, because they will be able to release songs whenever they want (probably one to two songs every month they said), instead of waiting every  2-3 years to release an album.  Although it seems like a risky move because it’s a change, I’m excited to see how it goes and hear what they do.

So now I have some questions. Who are some other artists (musicians specifically) who self-publish? Are there a lot of instances recently of bands switching from a record label to self-publishing? How big (popular) does one have to be to do this successfully? Can newer musicians start out this way now?