Folk Music

Folk music as the "Traditional and typically anonymous music that is an expression of the life of the people in a community." It is an excellent "quick and dirty" definition. Folk music is music that has become part of a people's heritage through oral tradition. A true folk song has no known author. Because of its oral tradition folk music is fluid. Variations in both tune and melody developed as music was passed orally through counties and countries.
Folk songs are important both musically and historically as they define some part of a people's experience and become a part of a people's culture. It therefore encompasses not only countries (England, Ireland, etc.) but cultures (AfricanAmerican, NativeAmerican, etc.) Traditional music is becoming the preferred term for music which originated in the 15th to 19th centuries.
Within the folk music genre there is distinction between ballads and folk songs. Ballads were longer and related a story, usually one based in the past and carried down by oral tradition. Ballads could be either dramatic or humorous, dealing with the topics of the time. New names and topics often became associated with older ballads. As the saying goes, "ballads are never wrong, sometimes the facts get messed up." Folk songs, on the other hand, were shorter, lyrical and personal.
Folk music is also a current genre of music that includes not only traditional tunes but newly composed tunes. The definition is not a set one and classification of specific musicians and songs is subject to controversy. Musical genre is much more fluid now than it has been in the past, so the lines between folk, country, celtic and others are often blurred and crossed. The definition of a "modern" folk song is a "song with a soft melodic sound and guitar accompaniment."(