Another very interesting revelation of that programme with regard the
history of popular music was that what the record companies labelled
"country" or "hillbilly" conceived as a product exclusively for the
white rural market, was in fact as much the work of black musicians as
white (the banjo is itself an Afro hybrid), but as the records
(followed by the radio) came to define the music the black musicians
were neglected, largely unrecorded, and finally forgotten. Black
rural musician were expected to do "blues" and little else, and
"country" music developed into, at its worst, a redneck tradition.
The BBC found possibly the last surviving black Appalachian musician.
I think there are many other instances of the circular transmission of
European modes across the Atlantic and back. Irish music for instance.
Poetry.
Pr
On 5 Oct 2010, at 12:49, David Bircumshaw wrote:
The World Routes programme on BBC Radio 3 recently did a three parter
field recording trip in the Appalachians, a concept which included
north Georgia, where you still get people continuing styles of singing
that combine Afro-American with what had been British 17th century
popular singing or folk. Churchy folk at that. At least on Sundays. It
survived there because the region was 'backward' and didn't adopt new
fashions, unlike New England (or old). So British singers of the
record collection epoch, when they weren't pretending to be paintings
by Peter Blake, were imitating a descendant of their own largely lost
tradition.
I hate to use bad language (except with good cause) but another
sibling of this scattered family is Country & Western. From Amy
Winehouse to Dolly Parton is but a small step.
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