Folk music

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Folk music is music that represents the tradition or culture of the area, place or state. It is traditional music that people learn by listening to other people playing it and then copying them. We say that the tradition is "orally transmitted" or "handed down orally", meaning that the music is not written down but taught by speaking ("oral" means "belonging to the mouth"). Every country has its own traditional music. Folk song is part of folk music. A folksinger is a person who sings folk songs.

There are three categories of Folk Music:

1. Folk singing
2. Folk dance
3. Folk instruments

In the 1960s a new type of music was started by Bob Dylan who mixed traditional folk song with rock and roll. This music is sometimes called "folk rock".

Folk music is music for everybody to play and listen to. In this way it is different from classical music which is mainly developed by professional musicians for a smaller group of people. Folk music is part of a popular culture, although the term "popular music" or "pop music" today refers to a kind of music which people can hear through television, radio and other means of recording.

In many parts of the world nearly all music is folk music. The term "folk music" is usually used for European and American music which is part of an oral tradition. Folk music as an oral tradition, is much less important than before, in part because of new technology (radio, television etc, and recordings of music). Folk tunes are now often written down, and they have influenced other kinds of music, so that the differences between various types of music are harder to see.