Do you think folk and country music are essentially the same?
February 152010
I certainly don’t think so, but it seems that a lot of people do. If you look in cd stores, for example, they have all of the folk artists (eg Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Woody Guthrie) under country.
Also, on this very site, there is no section for folk music.
The first "country song" Grammy winner was actually a folk song ("Tom Dooley" by the Kingston Trio) — a song that never made the country charts.
There are similarities; however, the major differences are that folk music, going back to Woody Guthrie, had more political messages in the songs, while country music songs tend to eschew politics as a recurring, general theme. There aren’t many country protest songs in country music, while they abound in folk music.
Another thing that really separates the two is that folk music tends, for the most part, to have solo performers. The obvious exceptions are Peter, Paul and Mary and the Kingston Trio; however, folk GROUPS aren’t that numerous (and certainly not folk groups that achieved popularity). Groups are a central part of country music, going back to Roy Acuff’s Crazy Tennesseans in the mid-30s.
February 15th, 2010 at 7:06 pm
There are clearly some similarities but they are still separate and distinct genres. I don’t even bother with CD stores and get my folk music either directly from the performer’s web site, from Amazon, or from a specialty online store like CD Baby.
References :
Long time folk musician and listener
February 15th, 2010 at 7:19 pm
The first "country song" Grammy winner was actually a folk song ("Tom Dooley" by the Kingston Trio) — a song that never made the country charts.
There are similarities; however, the major differences are that folk music, going back to Woody Guthrie, had more political messages in the songs, while country music songs tend to eschew politics as a recurring, general theme. There aren’t many country protest songs in country music, while they abound in folk music.
Another thing that really separates the two is that folk music tends, for the most part, to have solo performers. The obvious exceptions are Peter, Paul and Mary and the Kingston Trio; however, folk GROUPS aren’t that numerous (and certainly not folk groups that achieved popularity). Groups are a central part of country music, going back to Roy Acuff’s Crazy Tennesseans in the mid-30s.
References :
February 15th, 2010 at 7:37 pm
maybe 50-60 yrs since,but not today. Folk is still folk,while country is hardly recognisable, nearly all showbiz pop
References :
February 15th, 2010 at 7:55 pm
definitely not the same!
References :