Authenticity In Music Essay

American Studies is a difficult but interesting subject to try and understand, especially when looking at a few main themes such as authenticity and the folk. Two great examples that involve these themes are the publication of “Romancing the Folk” by Benjamin Feline and the film “O Brother Where Art thou” which have shown similar but different views on the two key themes, authenticity and the folk. The theme of authenticity within music has been altered by various groups of people as well as the artists themselves, for various different reasons. Another key theme is that of the government and how it has been helping the people to accept cultural differences, especially when you look at music. The analysis of the Lomax’s career in Benjamin Feline’s

Some of these reasons include: creating a cult of authenticity which was more appealing to the folk rather than the entire public, artists were told to change their style playing so that it was more appealing but don’t add popular songs; artists at later times were then asked to change their style to the popular audiences. Filene has shown that the authenticity of music was altered by various groups of people as the public demands were changing in time itself. In the film “O Brother Where Art thou” it shows the “cult of authenticity.” The reason that this film depicts this is because it takes place in Mississippi in the 1930’s and the style of music that fit their cultural norm was folk music. The second theme of the government helping the public accept differences was important in Filene’s book because times were changing. The big message from the government was that we need to join as one and accept cultural diversity. Also Pete Seeger’s most important message from the book “folk traditions will change as the folks who inhabit this earth change (Filene 194-195). In the film government intervention was needed to accept black band members. This was important because in the 1930’s racism and segregation was present. Overall the folk has changed authenticity of music and government intervention has changed the folk over