How did country and folk music diverge from their common source of Hillbilly music?
January 42010
I was wondering if you could offer any insight into how country music and folk music diverged from the common source of hillbillly music.
What would you say were the differences between them?
thx a bunch for any input!!
Hillbilly music wasn’t country music. It was the music of the Scots-Irish. When they came from Ireland, they couldn’t bring their instruments, so they had to create their music with new American instruments.
Today’s country comes from the Gospel and Blues tradition mixed with the Scots-Irish tradition.
I’d also like to point out that Hillbilly is a derogative term that some people, ie me, take offense to.
January 4th, 2010 at 7:17 am
Hillbilly music wasn’t country music. It was the music of the Scots-Irish. When they came from Ireland, they couldn’t bring their instruments, so they had to create their music with new American instruments.
Today’s country comes from the Gospel and Blues tradition mixed with the Scots-Irish tradition.
I’d also like to point out that Hillbilly is a derogative term that some people, ie me, take offense to.
References :
January 4th, 2010 at 7:53 am
In the 30s and 40s, "hillbilly" and "folk" were used interchangeably to describe the music. In those days they had commonalities such as simple instrumentation and songs that told stories and, in many cases, provided "news" of events that had happened. (Compare Gordon Lightfoot’s song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" as a "news event/story song" with the Carter Family tune "Rye Cove," about a tornado that destroyed the town near where the Carters lived.) The first "country song" Grammy in 1959 was actually awarded to a folk song ("Tom Dooley" by the Kingston Trio).
The "split," if you wish to call it that, seemed to come in the late 30s and early 40s when a number of country music singers toured with large bands (e.g., Roy Acuff’s Crazy Tennesseans — later the Smoky Mountain Boys, Pee Wee King’s Golden West Cowboys, etc.) while "folk singers" were still seen as single acts or at most duos with the simple instrumentation (you’d never find Pee Wee’s accordian on a folk song!). Also, the political nature of the songs (and the singers) provided a division. Artists like Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie are/were more politically liberal (and this reflected in their songs), while the country singers were more politically conservative — again, being reflected in the lyrics of the songs.
However, two critical factors have long remained as focal points in both folk and country music, which is why a number of modern folk acts (e.g., Gordon Lightfoot, John Prine, Steve Goodman) found success in country. One is the "story ballad" as a popular form of song; the other is the simple instrumentation (which you cannot hear in country anymore because, as the song said, "drums and rock and roll guitar are mixed up in your face"). It is interesting to note that a lot of bluegrass artists perform at what are known as "folk festivals," and have since the advent of the folk festival!
References :
Proud to love hillbilly music — I don’t want ANYONE thinking I like what they call "country" today!