Tag Archives: Music History

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.

Becoming Aware of Sexism in Pop Music

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Today I’ve been thinking about gender stereotypes in music. The 1960’s songs we listened to in class today are saturated with boy/girl relationship themes. We identified in class today the attitude expressed in Beach Boy’s “Fun Fun Fun” implying the 60’s view of neighborhood teenage girls, that their freedom must be “reigned in”and how that comes to the boy’s advantage in the song. Please keep in mind, my goal here is not to criticize the song itself—my problem is with the sexist issue that seems to come up in popular music a lot through history. Even today, I don’t enjoy listening to a lot of pop music if the songs are about relationships, because many of them imply themes about women begging for male attention, which I find problematic. Justine Harman talks more about this topic in a blog: https://www.elle.com/culture/music/a27923/top-50-music-trends/

The topic of sexism and gender issues was not always one that I cared about. When I left my rural hometown and went to college (in another small rural town, but still) I made new friends away from my familiar bubble, and that made me look at things differently and question the culture we live in. I was in a sociology class last year and had to choose a topic for a term paper, so I decided to research gender identity in the United States. It took a focus on diverse genders and sexual identities that go outside of the mold of traditional feminine/masculine roles. Through that, I learned some disheartening facts and became hyper-aware of every gendered idea enforced by advertising/politics/history/religion/pop culture–particularly the ideas that are harmful to one’s sense of self worth and how they view others’. So through that I became sensitive to the entertainment media around me, especially music, asking myself questions like this: does the song I’m listening to hold a healthy attitude toward the self-worth of others, or does it do harm?

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?