Appalachia Music and the Coal Mines
Appalachia music is not appreciated or respected in today’s cultural society like it should be. Many people around the world listen to new forms of the Appalachian music not knowing where or how it was developed. It is the focus of this paper to explain Appalachia music in detail along with a small background on coal mining in the region. The paper also will focuses on singers that wrote protest songs about coal mining, that were featured appeared in the documentary Harlan County, USA. The object for the readers is to gain information about Appalachia music and to appreciate how current music roots were developed. Music holds an extraordinary status in the Appalachia culture. No other folk art is quite as pervasive nor serves such important social function as music. Music is a universal activity of daily life. It is indeed true that you do not meet many people in the mountains who cannot saw a fiddle or twang a banjo. (Rosenberg 46) This homemade music can be best characterized as vernacular tradition—a mixture of religious, dance, popular, and folk music. (Rosenberg 19) The first instrument many people think of when talking about mountain folk music is the banjo. While its usage toda . . .
A number of genres have spawned from the mountain music, including bluegrass. Similarities with the blues of black Americans are numerous except that the mountain people rarely show outward emotion while playing. Compared to the banjo, the guitar was both a latecomer and a folk instrument by commercial fiat. There are three string sets, one a double course and two single strings. Strumming or plucking of chords provides both rhythmic drive and harmony. It is currently used both as a rhythmic and melodic instrument in Appalachia Music. (Huvard) The instrument is shaped in a double teardrop form with a flat back suited for the playing style. In this time period many workers protest over their wages and working conditions. The voice is the universal musical "instrument" in this culture. More recently the harmonica has been borrowed from other folk traditions and placed in an Appalachia context. A few other instruments can be found in Appalachia Music, but they are much less common to everyday practice. Coal miners on strike usually had used the poetic form of folksong lyrics. (Humphrey) The technology that brought Appalachia folk music to the public was also the force that nearly caused its demise.
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