Geography and Popular Music

People's taste in music also points up the distinction between folk and popular culture. Some genres of popular music are heard throughout the world. Popular stars make international tours, and their songs may hit the top of the charts in several countries simultaneously. Why are certain types of music especially popular in certain places? Where did the various types of popular music most commonly heard throughout the world originate? We can best understand how geography influences popular music by first considering how popular music has evolved from folk music

Folk Music. Throughout world history, people have expressed theiremotions through music. Many folk songs describe everyday life within the context of the cultures in which they aresung. African-American slaves in the antebellum Southsang of the misery and oppression of plantation life. “Forty-niners”—miners who participated in the California gold rush of 1849—sang of the alternating optimism and despair associated with the search for quick wealth.

Much of the folk music of North America was originally brought across the Atlantic by European settlers during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. European influences on American folk music are complemented by the folk-music traditions brought to the United States by settlers from other areas of the world. The distinctive rhythms and orchestration of traditional African-American folk music originated in West Africa.

The Western frontier has provided inspiration for another distinctive genre of American folk music. Cowboys, lumberjacks, farmers, and other pioneers sang about their experiences during the westward expansion of Anglo-American settlement. The Western frontier has also influenced the popular music of today.

Of course, not all American folk songs were sung in English. Non-English-speaking immigrants brought their musical traditions with them from their ancestral homes throughout the world. German, Polish, and Scandinavian folk music is still broadcast on radio stations in parts of the United States where many immigrants from these areas have settled (Figure 6-3).

The Cajuns of southern Louisiana, whose ancestors came from France by way of present-day Nova Scotia, continue to play distinctive folk music. Cajun folk songs are sung in French and accompanied by accordions as well as stringed instruments. American folk music has also been influenced by Mexican music sung in Spanish. The folk music of the entire southwestern portion of the United States is clearly influenced by Mexican music. In urban areas, immigrants from Italy, Poland, Russia, Germany, and many other countries brought their musical traditions with them, and these have also contributed to the development of modern American popular music.

From Folk to Popular Music. The rich tradition of American folk music gave rise toseveral major genres of popular music. Folk music andpopular music differ in several important respects.Traditional folk songs describe experiences unique to thecultures in which they originated. In most cases, the com-posers are not known and the songs have been passedorally from one generation to the next with modifications.By contrast, popular music transcends traditional culturalboundaries. Much of today's popular music is written tobe performed by professional entertainers, whose live andrecorded performances are heard by millions of listenersthroughout the world.

The development of popular music in the contemporary world has been heavily influenced by technological change. The invention of the phonograph by Thomas Edison in the late nineteenth century enabled musical performances to be recorded and replayed. The phonograph did for music what the printing press did for written language.

Music of particular cultures could be recorded and listened to by people of other cultural backgrounds throughout the world. With the advent of radio and television in the twentieth century, live performances could be broadcast to huge, widely distributed audiences, further expediting the diffusion of popular music. In turn, audiences were eager to see and hear in person what they had experienced via the communications media. Today, popular recording stars regularly go on concert tours, many of which are international.

Several major genres of popular music that originated in the United States have achieved popularity throughout the world. In the following sections, we will focus on jazz, country music, and rock-and-roll. All three have diffused from initial centers of innovation in the southeastern United States.