folk music

Songs often reflect local history and culture. This topic is part of Genres within Music. This page currently draws on 7 supporting questions, with answers and bonus facts available below.

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folk music trivia questions

Folk music is traditionally passed through communities by what?

Answer: Oral tradition

Bonus fact: Songs often reflect local history and culture.

Which instrument is strongly associated with U.S. folk singer Woody Guthrie?

Answer: Acoustic guitar

Bonus fact: Guthrie famously wrote 'This Machine Kills Fascists' on his guitar.

What 20th-century movement helped revive traditional folk music in the United States?

Answer: Folk revival

Bonus fact: The 1950s and 1960s folk revival brought traditional songs to new audiences.

What common nickname is given to the harmonica in blues and folk music?

Answer: Harp

Bonus fact: Blues musicians often refer to a harmonica as a harp.

What was folk and blues musician Lead Belly's birth name?

Answer: Huddie Ledbetter

Bonus fact: Smithsonian Folkways says Lead Belly was born around 1888 and became a cornerstone of American folk music.

In which American city is the "House of the Rising Sun" located in the song?

Answer: New Orleans

Bonus fact: The song's exact origins are uncertain, but versions circulated in American folk music long before the Animals recorded it.

What musical influence became much more obvious on "Workingman's Dead" than on the Dead's earlier psychedelic albums?

Answer: Country and folk music

Bonus fact: The album reflected the band's interest in traditional American roots music and close harmony singing.

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