The New American Folk Canon

[sus]

Alternate title because I'm happy with neither: "Pop Songs That Are Becoming Folk Songs"

This one's really for the Americans, @line b @kid charlemagne @Ian Scuffling @mvuent but obviously Brits are welcome to contribute

The idea is this: Folks songs, musicologically (not pop folk acts like the Lumineers, but Alan Lomax shit) are songs in an oral tradition, with diasporic variants, whose original writers have faded into obscurity. (Or which lack a single canonical author)

So this thread is for "pop songs"—musicologically, songs written for recording/commercial distribution, with a clear writer/origin point—which could plausibly become or are becoming de facto folk standards in the American canon. You could imagine that in 2150, they're still widely known, your average suburbanite can sing along to some of the verses, but the original writer is largely forgotten

("Standards," "Great American Songbook" capture this notion but are more jazz or folk focused, respectively)

 

[sus]

I think the newest clearest entry of this genre is Take Me Home Country Roads. Even Lana has a version. Way more zoomers can name the song than know who John Denver is. It's becoming campfire music

 

[sus]

I think Paul Simon has contributed a number of these. "Sound of Silence," "America," and "Graceland" are all trending this direction

 

[sus]

A couple open questions in my mind before things open up

(1) Do Smash Mouth's AllStar and Don't Stop Believing count? Or does it have to be vaguely folky in the sense of a lowstated, easy-to-sing, relatively simple ballad

(2) What do we do about Dylan?

(3) How does Bryan Ferry's American Songbook project fit into this?

(4) Shocking if true but has Joni actually contributed any of these? As much as I love her.

 

[sus]

You have to be able to put on this song in a car of random 20/30-somethings and everyone sings along. To count on this list.

 

[wg-]

Do they have to be white people or do rap songs count? Genuine question

 

[wg-]

I think don't stop believing would definitely count

As would let it go from Frozen, thats going to end up so ingrained in the generation below you boys it's absurd

 

[kid charlemagne]

A couple open questions in my mind before things open up

(1) Do Smash Mouth's AllStar and Don't Stop Believing count? Or does it have to be vaguely folky in the sense of a lowstated, easy-to-sing, relatively simple ballad

(2) What do we do about Dylan?

(3) How does Bryan Ferry's American Songbook project fit into this?

(4) Shocking if true but has Joni actually contributed any of these? As much as I love her.

3). 195M views.....

 

[kid charlemagne]

You have to be able to put on this song in a car of random 20/30-somethings and everyone sings along. To count on this list.

 

[kid charlemagne]

i dont think simon, mitchell, or dylan have faded into obscurity, but they do possess songs where listeners dont actually know them as the original writers

 

[sus]

You're right, this is my least favorite Joni song but if any survive til class of 2097 summercamp it's this one. And maybe Circle Game?

 

[sus]

Re Adele I do think we may need to put a minimum # of decades behind us to know what lasts. Otherwise every #1 chart topper qualifies.

 

[sus]

This may be one of the stronger contenders. Nobody knows who Randy Newman is and everyone knows this song.

Gonna throw "These Boots Were Made For Walking" on this list. I can picture a 22nd century 12th wave feminist teen strumming it.

 

[sus]

Fleetwood Mac, Dreams

 

[sus]

Do they have to be white people or do rap songs count? Genuine question

It's a great question

 

[sus]

I feel like it's a logical extension of whether Journey counts.

The "how the sausage is made" definition of folk, and what it sounds like in practice — acoustic guitar ballads — is so interbraided in my mind it's hard for me to think clearly about

 

[sus]

One way to avoid the hard genre sociology question is to avoid it and look at some other standard of qualification. I think that these songs have to be covered extensively until there's no canonical recording anymore. Does this happen to rap songs?

 

[sus]

Don't Stop Believing and All-Star each have super canonical recordings so they probably are disqualified too

I guess stripped-down tracks are more likely to enter folk canon (tradition of noncanonical reproductions, variants) solely by dint of being easier to cover. And the long tradition of standards traditions in solo singersongwriter/ troubador/ blues traditions.

 

[shakahislop]

not the same as what you’re saying jungle/d&b have become folk music in the England. in the sense that it’s a long lived music accompanied by a set of practices and is country-specific and subset specific. in the summer where I’m from every now and then there’s a soundsysten set up in a pub garden or at carnival and everyone knows what to do

 

[Murphy]

Not an advocate but era-esque Iron & Wine for the benzo quality, certain moments from Brightblack Morning Light and Black Moth SuperbRainbow just because the tags stick out in a more gothy folky way