1950s/1960s Folk Scene ("Inside Llewyn Davis") Question: (soundtrack, classic)

[Dayton Sux]

I saw the movie, got the soundtrack, and now have a historical question...
...how did this folk scene get started and become popular? Are there any good books on it?

I know that in terms of cultural history the Beats, which sort of overlapped this scene, were more into Jazz, so was wondering about the genesis of that scene portratyed in the movie (and recognizing it apparently was in different cities...NYC of course, but also Chicago, and perhaps others).

Just looking for a history of this movement or trend in popular music.

[loose cannon]

Truthfully I do not think the Folk scene was ever really popular. Most people were listening to t doo wop and rock and roll. The Folkies were the true alternative folks of the time. They were the real hipsters.

[mikebnllnb]

Check out A Mighty Wind which is a great comedy film based on early folk music.

[soupson1]

Folk Music has many different genres. Traditional, Contemporary, Revival. Scroll down to Folk Revival of the Mid 20th-Century in the English speaking Countries.

Folk music - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a haunting film. One of the best scenes in the movie to me is when He gets to play a song for the Albert Grossman figure. The man listens to the whole song (every song throughout the film is given a complete performance), then looks at him and says the six words which everybody in the music business thinks and hardly anybody ever says: "I don't see any money here".
He doesn't understand his real problem is people don't like him.

[thriftylefty]

I think you would have to go back to 1865. A book was published titled "Slave Songs in the United States" What is commonly referred to as “Negro Spirituals” are from the 500 or so folk songs from this collection. These songs inspired much discussion as to their origins, roots and if they were wholly attributable to Slaves. “Musicology" was a term that was not used until a little later.

In the ensuing years other folk song collectors began gleaning the South for authentic music. Francis Child (“The Child Ballads’) Cecil Sharp and John Jacob Niles are the most notable early folklorist who collected regional songs. Latter John Lomax, Carl Sandburg, and Dorothy Scarborough all began to publish folk song books.

IMO Popular music in America at this time was based more on the “Art Song,” Classical Music, and music composed for the stage and did little to reflect the taste of the larger public. If you look in the older song books for elementary school children you will see a shift after the turn of the century from classical melodies gleaned from European composers with new words, to songs collected from the various regions and occupations in the US.

The guitar was replacing the piano as a common instrument in the home which leads me to believe that people were more mobile and music in the home required less formal training. Record players were evolving from the giant expensive Victrolas and after the war record companies were clamoring to find people to make records. Still today people who play folk music and blues think they are preserving the music when most of it was already written down long before they were born.


The social setting that this music thrived in was a hold over from the Harlem Renaissance (1917-1945 IMO). It was common for multi- racial , multi-ethnic, and artistically diverse people to socialize together and draw from each others art. It was during this period that folk music was elevated to popular music in all of its venacular glory it replaced the classicaly based popular songs of the fifties. Still today what we call pop music is derivitive of American Folk Music.