On the Roots of Ethnic Music: Identity and Global Romanticism – Open Access Musicology Journal

Tellef Kvifte, Popular Musicology Online

Folk music and popular music represent in many ways two distinct cultural spheres with few contact points. The ‘folk’ in the folk music tradition are a construct of the national romantic era, usually referring to peasants, living close to nature, while the folk of the ‘popular’ are more constructs of urban and modern society.

Given the fundamental differences in ideology one finds here, it may be surprising to find a strong alliance between the two groups. What I have in mind here is that of ‘world music’, ethno pop’, ‘ethnic wave’ or, as I call it, ‘global romanticism’. >> continue

PS: Popular Musicology Online publishes papers in fulltext online. It “is published exclusively online and is a free, un-funded academic resource available to scholarly and general public readerships with an interest in debates on popular music” and is edited by Stan Hawkins, Department of Musicology, University of Oslo, Norway.