Actually, for a very long time I have refereed to that musical period as: The Great Folk Music Scare of the 60's.

Later,
Fred

i can't believe there hasn't been any -1'ing on this post.

i think if i would make a hair metal post in electric and act all "i hate metal, its so lame, i hope it never comes back" i would get some snappy responses.

You can like what you like and listen to what you want but to wish there was less music in the world is like hoping for more wars, it might please some people but the world would be a lesser place.

I like to keep an open mind. Not everything will find its way to my wallet, but as long as there is a decent melody played decently I'm OK listening to it.

Well, being a soldier myself, I don't really equate wishing for less music to wishing for more war...somehow I don't think less music will cause some of the things I've seen. And I don't know anyone who would be pleased with more war, or at least the people involved in fighting them. I for one would like nothing more than for there to be no more fighting anywhere.

Not trying to be argumentative...just stating a feeling on the matter.

Anydangway, folk music, to me, was a byproduct of the 60's. For one thing, it was really easy for any hippie who could play the guitar to tote one around in his VW Van and write music. There was also a big coincidental movement into poetry, and having a massive rock band does not always lend itself well to the intimate settings of the places where poetry is recited for entertainment. Also, folk music was simplistic and bare, which was the opposite of how mainstream rock was moving...towards more and more production, layering, effects, etc etc. It was an obvious alternative. It also just happened to be a great vehicle for the protest movement, for the reasons stated above. This made it easy for artists who were part of the target demographic to express their feelings on everything from Vietnam to taxes to police brutality and racism.

To me though, it's not really the "folk" music of America. As a student of music history, you can learn about how African slaves brought over their instruments (or in many cases, created new ones based on the patterns from Africa) and began playing music. European immigrants, especially Irish and Scottish, brought their fiddles, drums, and whatever else they had. This resulted in what we now call Bluegrass, as many of those immigrants moved to "the west", or what was then the west...Western Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee. . Listen to bluegrass, and then listen to some Irish jigs...the connection is quite ovious. For the Africans, they started playing their traditional music on the plantations using their instruments. This resulted in what we now know as Blues, which eventually led into Ragtime, which eventually led the way into Jazz.We can, with some certainty, trace such instruments as a Banjo (which, oddly enough, is now not only an accepted part of bluegrass but is an integral part of it), the Washboard, the Jug, the Washtub Bass, and the Cigar-Box Guitar to the slave population of the mid-1800's.

To me, with those being the first true "American" styles of music, that's where the true "Folk" music lies. Those were created by people who (at least as we would realize it today) had very little musical training. Both the secular and spiritual forms of those styles set the framework for what would become popular music later.