My observation included listening to folk songs and stories of Woody Guthrie. Woody Guthrie was one of those workers who headed to California in search of gainful employment. Woody wrote hundreds of songs between …show more content…
Folk music, in the original sense of the term, is music by and of the people. Folk music arose, and best survives, in societies not yet affected by mass communication and the commercialization of culture. It normally was shared and performed by the entire community (not by a special class of expert performers), and was transmitted by word of mouth.
"Folk music is usually seen as the authentic expression of a way of life now past or about to disappear (or in some cases, to be preserved or somehow revived). Unfortunately, despite the assembly of an enormous body of work over some two centuries, there is still no unanimity on what folk music (or folklore, or the folk) is."
In the ‘60s, again, the American worker found himself in struggle. This time, the main concern was not wages or benefits, but civil rights and the War in Vietnam. American folksingers gathered in coffee shops in San Francisco and New York. They picked up the legacies of Woody Guthrie and others, singing songs about the concerns of the day. Out of this community rose Folk Rock’s superstars - Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, and others. Their work dealt with everything from love and war to work and play.
The 1960s folk revival offered political commentary, sure, but also a powerful promise for change.
By the 1970s, folk music had begun to fade into the background, as the US pulled out of