{"id":2053,"date":"2019-11-21T17:49:15","date_gmt":"2019-11-21T17:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/?p=2053"},"modified":"2019-12-05T20:51:06","modified_gmt":"2019-12-05T20:51:06","slug":"hear-it-for-yourself-folk-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/dighist\/hear-it-for-yourself-folk-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Hear It for Yourself- Folk Music"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Personally, I associate the culture of the 1930s with the\nfolk tunes produced by artists such as Woody Guthrie. Of course, there are\ndozens of folk artists who found success in this time, but not all of them have\npermeated the modern culture as much. So, it is interesting for us as observers\nfrom the 21st<\/sup> century to look at the music produced in the 30s, the\ncommon themes and tunes, and how it reflected the reality of the era. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, it\u2019s important to reflect on the widespread and unspecific nature of the \u201cfolk.\u201d There is no single definition for the folk music and culture that became popular in the 30s, and this is part of its strength. The folk movement didn\u2019t idealize a homogenous America, but acknowledged strength through diversity<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, the tone<\/span><\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> of folk songs of the time often reemphasized the economic reality faced by millions of Americans during the depression. Slow, sad sounding tunes accompanied individuals who faced a slow, sad economic depression. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, not all folk songs maintained the same tone, especially those that had been passed down for a longer time via an oral tradition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The connective tissue tying all folk music together is a sense of authenticity about the reality of America. This includes an embrace of immigrants and the music they brought with them<\/span><\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span> from their own cultures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both of the recordings in this post are a result of the Federal One Project\u2019s efforts to encourage and capture the music and folk culture of the time. For one reason or another, these songs were deemed as important enough to listen, record, and maintain over the course of 80 years. The songs recorded as part of the project reflected the reality of American culture, as opposed to just what the mass media produced or valued<\/span>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact that we are able to discuss and listen to these\nrecordings decades later and draw conclusions about life during this period\nspeaks to the value of the Federal One Project. Although the projects,\nespecially the Federal Theater Project, received a great deal of scrutiny for\ntheir focus on the arts in a time of financial hardship, they have proven their\nvalue from a historical perspective. Even without consideration to the direct\nbenefit that the projects had to the artists and individuals involved, the\nprojects provided value to future generations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this instance, I believe that the inclusions of sound\ngreatly emphasize the points of the text. I can describe a song as sad or foreign\nor celebratory, but none of that compares to allowing an audience to experience\nthat for themselves. It\u2019s similar to a game of telephone, every step along the\nway may lose an aspect of the original recording or song. So, by allowing the\naudience to hear the song for themselves, some steps are removed, and the audio\ncan be experienced firsthand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Personally, I associate the culture of the 1930s with the folk tunes produced by artists such as Woody Guthrie. Of course, there are dozens of folk artists who found success in this time, but not all of them have permeated the modern culture as much. So, it is interesting for us as observers from the … Continue reading “Hear It for Yourself- Folk Music”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,11],"tags":[89,87,88,90],"class_list":["post-2053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dighist","category-sound","tag-federal-music-project","tag-folk","tag-music","tag-sound"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2053"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2061,"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2053\/revisions\/2061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jessicadoeshistory.com\/courseblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}