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The topic of this is simple. What light can anyone shed on the differences between subjective popular music genres folk and country? Themes are often similar, instrumentation is similar to identical, musical elements such as timbre, texture, and harmony are often extremely similar also.

What is it that makes this James Taylor album I have either country or folk? I feel it could go either way, since I like the type of American country music that leans towards folk; or is it American folk music that leans towards country?

And then if you try to add alt-country into the equation as well, it could perhaps even just as easily be called folk rock. I know a local band, The Gin Club, who identify themselves as folk and country and rock, but my mates would call anything from alt-country to indie rock.

Just thought it was a somewhat interesting topic. Any comments would be appreciated!

I think it goes something like this.

There are musical "elements" associated with each genre, for example, the wah-wah guitar effect can be associated with funk music, and growl vocals however can be associated with death metal. Much of modern music is difficult to classify because in a given piece, there is often a multitude of these "elements" at work at the same time, associated with as many different genres. This is also why musical styles can "evolve", I think. Some single "elements" are also associated with multiple genres, and some music contains elements which bear no association to any known genre at all. Another major factor affecting the categorisation of music is that the elements that define a given genre are not standardised at all.

I could and should elaborate, but again, I'm too tired.

Shoot, man. I think it's a venn diagram scenario here.
I think country is a little more constricted to its own kind of sound, with guitar and great vocal harmonies— you know what comes to mind. Folk is often in the same vein, but it also is all the camp songs you know, it's the songs the colonial slaves would sing, and it's the song your grandma used to lullaby you with. It's free and it has tradition.
I'm tempted to look it up on Wikipedia, but that's cheating.

It seems that Folk music is more based on "traditional music" - the sort of 400-year Scottish jigs that you hear... Greensleeves, and stuff like that.
Then again:
[quote=Wikipedia]Country music... has roots in traditional folk music...[/quote]
So who knows?

I always see Country music as... we,, people from the country singing stuff. Usually with either a banjo or guitar - though they are also used in other genres.

I think it's really very blurry, but I'd say Folk is traditional stuff, and Country is modern... but the same stuff.

Whenever I see folk music I tend to think of it as an international thing, folk music can be inspired by traditional music from any culture. Of course there is the other definition, that folk is the music of the people. Of course in the case of the USA it's blues. Whereas to me country has very defined bourdaries, tending to associate it somewhat stereotypically with the image of banjo-playing, tobacco-chewing *citizens of the once-confederate states* (insert your own epithet). Where 'Folk' is used as a musical genre in my library at least, it tends to be associated with European and particularly Scandinavian folk music.

American country music seems to be much more specific than the folk genre. I think of folk as experimental, lending to cultural origins. I think of country as being something less innovative and more derivative. I suppose country bears those cultural roots, but it's so laden with marketing tactics and selling ideals (over making music) that it doesn't really count as folk.

blue_tetris wrote:I suppose country bears those cultural roots...

Odd, I always think of Folk music as having cultural music. Country music seems more new.

Weisslenny0 wrote:

blue_tetris wrote:I suppose country bears those cultural roots...

Odd, I always think of Folk music as having cultural music. Country music seems more new.

You need reading comprehension skills.

blue_tetris wrote:

Weisslenny0 wrote:

blue_tetris wrote:I suppose country bears those cultural roots...

Odd, I always think of Folk music as having cultural music. Country music seems more new.

You need reading comprehension skills.

Huh. What am I saying?

Correction: I always thought of Folk music as being traditional music, like tunes passed down from generation to generation. I think of Country music as newer music - music being written now involving a quartet of banjos and several kazoos.

Lenny, I'm not talking about traditional folk music, rather the more contemporary folk genre. Not folk tunes, like Ring a Ring a Rosy. Bob Dylan.

KinGAleX wrote:Lenny, I'm not talking about traditional folk music, rather the more contemporary folk genre. Not folk tunes, like Ring a Ring a Rosy. Bob Dylan.

Oh. Well, there goes my argument.

Folk and Country aren't my most listened-to genres, but I've never seen too much difference between them. Anyways, I'll leave this topic to someone who knows a bit more about them.

hm. i don't know why. but somehow in my mind the two are very different. i guess to me country is something like... higher pitched and sharper guitar.. more energy or something. nah thats not right. i can't explain it. but i'd say something is country or something is folk. mm (folk is such a bugger of a word to say out loud).

also, folk is often broadened to weird experimental stuff... so i'd assume that means that country is probably a category coming under folk. which i think has been said above.

yeah.

blue_tetris wrote:

Weisslenny0 wrote:

blue_tetris wrote:I suppose country bears those cultural roots...

Odd, I always think of Folk music as having cultural music. Country music seems more new.

You need reading comprehension skills.

In my post, I said that both folk and country have cultural roots and, moreover, those found in folk are more identifiable. You extracted a part of a sentence from what I said and took it to mean something not at all implied by that sentence: you figured I didn't think folk was traced back to cultural origins. Reading is fundamental!

Well, I'll try and give a sort of musical analysis, but they are extremely similar genres and I'm hardly and expert in either so take this with a big grain of salt (think the size of an apple or so.)


I'd say country music generally has a slightly more biting guitar and especially the 'twang', whereas alot of folk is more lilting and softer. Country may have a stronger focus on rhythm than pure folk tracks, remembering that Dylan pioneered folk rock so he isn't completely indicative of the genre.
Both genres place a strong emphasis on story telling with their song writing.... Eh I can't really think of anything else, except that Country has its roots (hell there's another almost identical genre) in the USA while folk stems from all over the world.

Yeah, I thought country was a subset of folk. That is, folk is derived from traditional music in general, and country is derived from a specific tradition/group of traditions. I suspect they often sound similar to us because most of us folk live in Western countries and so the folk music we are exposed to often shares roots with country and western.

I think folk tends to be more intimate, personal, and rich than country. This is based on general connotations and the songs that come to my mind in particular for each genre.

No, folk your country. >:(

Folk music lyrics seem to make less sense to me than country music. Well, I guess that you could say that country music is very simple in terms of lyricism; folk is more dense, usually.