Folk Music

I love folk music. I believe that folk music holds the answers. There are other forms of music that people can identify with, but I've realized that they only make people feel a little bit better because they feel like there is someone else with the same problems as them, but they pose no answers. They may state great questions about life, or correctly capture the emotions and imagery that go along with certain events in life, but they give no real answers. I found the answers in folk music. My love of folk music started in elementary school. We used to watch a video in music class called This Land is Your Land: The Animated Children's Songs of Woody Guthrie. It featured songs like This Land is Your Land, The Car Song, and Mail Myself to You. We also watched movies and sang and listened to songs about John Henry. I loved these songs, and I couldn't understand why, I just did and they became an important part of my childhood. Then, when I got older, I discovered the music of Bob Dylan and i realized that the reason I loved those songs so much as a child and the reason that I love folk music now, is because it was so simple. It appeals to basic emotions deep within the human mind, that can't even be explained, you just feel it, and you know it's real. Folk music contains the answers to all of life's questions and it pounds them in to your head and they stay there on a subconscious level. It can open up your mind and change it completely, it shook me to my core and changed my life completely. It's real music about real people. My musical taste is extremely varied, I like some rap music a lot, but all those songs about cars and women, those songs weren't about me, I couldn't relate to those songs. And then, way back in my middle schools days, I fell in love with what I will refer to as "emo" music for lack of a better word. I thought, "Man, those guys really get it, they feel just like me." But in retrospect, I feel like they only made things worse, it was like wallowing in my own grief. Then I fell on love with country music, and it was closer, almost what I was looking for, what I needed in my life. I still love all of these forms of music, too. I can never replace or duplicate the memories and feelings that these songs evoke, but they were nothing compared to folk. When I first heard folk music, everything was different, nothing could ever be the same. I think that everyone in the world should hear folk music, and if it's not for you, then hey, that's okay. But, I think that if everyone in the world could hear just one folk song that could really change the world. I know it sounds cheesy, and I sound like a hippie, but trust me, I'm not. Pop music is mind numbing, brainwashing. Which can be proven by the trends it follows, it changes every few years, it's gone from boy bands, to hip hop, to some country music like Taylor Swift. And that's just within the past few years. People like whatever people like MTV and record executives tell them that they like. Folk had a brief period of popularity in the '60s. It managed to break through to the main stream, for just a minute, but note that that decade was a time of great change in the United States. Young people found a voice, they found freedom and liberation. So, basically what I'm trying to say is is that I love folk music. I'm not really sure why I posted this blog, I'm just hoping that maybe if one person would somehow find it hidden somewhere within these countless millions of web pages and read it and maybe see the light, then I feel like a better person, like I've made a difference in the world. Or, perhaps I just hope that maybe one person will find it and agree with me, or it will make someone think. That's all i really want to do. Folk music is beautiful, the closest thing to God I've ever found and I want to share it with the world, so everyone should just give it a shot.