Folk+Music-Individual+Case+Study

=1960's Folk Music=



History:
Folk music is said to have originated many years ago before music could be recorded. It dates so far back that it can be categorized in oral history. Folk music was at one of its highest peaks in the 1960's. This style of folk music is considered contemporary folk music. In this style of music songwriters have, in a way, recorded a part of history. These songwriters would tell stories about war, politics, civil rights, and about life in general. Some big names associated with 1960's folk music include Joan Baez, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, Donovan, Mamas and the Papas, etc. Folk song writers in the 1960's were very outspoken and critical in the must they wrote. Two popular topics that were talked about in their songs include the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. The duet, Simon and Garfunkel, sung a song called "A Church is Burning," in which they talked about the prejudices against African Americans and how they were resilient to be free. Another artist, Country Joe McDonald performed a song at Woodstock in 1969 that was called "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag." This song was an anti-Vietnam war song that spoke of sending people into a war that the government had no cause for.

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Why I like Folk Music:
I like 1960's folk music for many reasons. One reason is that I'm big into history and especially the 1960's movement that took place in the United States. Most songs I've listened to tell a part of history. It's interesting to hear how people felt about the major events that were going on at that time. I also like this era of folk music because it has a really nice sound to it. Many folk artists of this time were very good at fingerpicking. Fingerpicking creates nice melodies that make the music very emotional while having a nice relaxing tone to it. What made me even more interested in this music was when I began playing the guitar. Aside from folk music being fingerpicked, many times a combination of three or four chords is all they play. This made folk music easy to play when first learning how to play the guitar. One of my biggest inspirations was the band Simon and Garfunkel. Paul Simon,one half of Simon and Garfunkel, was a very talented song writer who's fingerpicking style captivated my attention. His style of fingerpicking inspired me to want to learn how to fingerpick, based off of is structure. 1960's folk music is one of my favorite genres of music. Many people of my generation look at like I'm crazy for being so interested in older music, especially folk music. This type of folk music has also paved the path that has introduced me to modern folk music. All of these reasons I have listed are what, collectively, made me interested and like 1960's folk music.