From Volke to Folk to Roots: How recording technology influenced folk music in North America
I decided to explore how recording technology influenced folk music in North America. I think I secretly want to be an ethnomusicologist because after I finished the first recording of my script it was over twenty minutes. Even after eliminating several pages it still read out at 19+ minutes. I decided to leave it because I felt like I had to provide a lot of background as most of it would be new to students in this course.
For production I went with a lot of stills and excerpts of representative songs. I tried to keep these as short as I could to convey the feel of the different performers while still meeting the fair dealing conditions for academic use of copyrighted material. There are two versions of the industrial lament, Peg and Awl and three versions of the ballad Barbara Allen to provide context for the changes on folk songs. There is some ragtime, blues and even one modern performance of a railroad workers song from British Columbia among the other tracks.
Challenges included finding enough good images that were creative commons (or public domain) and documenting them and producing an almost 20minute documentary takes a LOT of time. I will not be as ambitious for future projects.
Even though I am now two weeks behind on readings (I’ve got some long nights ahead of me) I am happy I studied this topic as I have a better understanding of the historical and phonographic (recording) effects on a music genre I still enjoying playing and listening to.
Full disclosure: While I still enjoy listening to a newly released album all the way through in the cool of the evening, it still doesn’t compare to playing music with a group of people and hearing a new (to me) song sung live and playing along–but anyone who has come across my comments on on ebooks vs. paper won’t be surprised!
Video Link: It’s on Kaltura as I am scared of the copyright police and I want to have a case that it was (it is!) for academic use only. It’s in My Media on connect so I don’t know if people can access it…apparently its in the Course Gallery!
https://connect.ubc.ca/webapps/osv-kaltura-bb_bb60/jsp/myMedia.jsp
Script PDF (It’s a long read!) ETEC540-2
Hi John
I’m also interested in how Ong’s ideas apply to oral transmission of music. When I started reading Ong’s descriptions of how oral poets generate a unique re-telling of a poem with each repetition, it reminded me of how instrumental musicians in the oral tradition I’m familiar with (Irish traditional music) learn by listening to other musicians and never repeat a tune exactly the same way each time. Access to recordings and written versions of the tunes has changed this, with some players learning a version of the tune and playing it without variation.
It’s interesting to think about recording’s impact on folk music. On one hand, recordings of pop music can offer alternatives to the tradition of folk music, and take away its audience. On the other hand, it can expose folk music to a broader audience, and encourage its adoption into the ‘bigger tent’ of roots music that you’ve described.
I read your script, but couldn’t view your video. When I clicked on the link, it took me to my “My Media” page where I could only see the video that I had uploaded.