The Left and Folk Song
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4494348 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Alun Howkins (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2009 |
| Volume | 68 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 273-279 |
| Publication date | 2009-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | History Workshop Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1363-3554 • E-ISSN: 1477-4569 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/hwj/dbp019 |
| OpenAlex | W1974708593 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 1 |
For much of the twentieth century ‘folk music’ was the music of the left in Britain and North America. The most obvious manifestations were (and are) to be found in overtly political song, from the ‘Dust Bowl Ballads’ of Woody Guthrie in the 1930s to the Critics Group of 1960s Britain and up to ‘The Imagined Village’ today, fronted by Billy Bragg and Martin and Liza Carthy. These were songs which celebrated the life and struggles of working men and women, although at their best they moved way beyond simple hagiography. They were politically unproblematic, at times simplistic. Their celebration of the working class fitted with the politics of the left, and was reassuring to the usually converted audiences who listened to them. However, the relationship of the left to ‘folk music’ in general (or traditional or ‘vernacular’ song) is more complex.1 Folk song has not always been the...
Art · Ballad · Folk music · Folk song · Left behind · Literature · Musical · Poetry · Political science · Politics · Vernacular · Working class · Diverse Musicological Studies · History · Law · Music History and Culture · Musicology and Musical Analysis · Psychology
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,15 |
| Citation span | 2013 - 2019 (7) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |