Ballad of America preserves and celebrates music from America's diverse cultural history through:

Music Library
Articles and videos with fascinating stories of songs, genres, instruments, people, and more

For Educators
Resources to help teachers, both traditional and homeschool, integrate music and United States history

Sing It
Sing-along videos, recordings, lead sheets, and more to facilitate the singing of American folk songs by people of all ages

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America's Music

The music in America today is part of a continuum that reaches back to the Indigenous peoples and stretches across the Atlantic Ocean to the Old World. Music, instruments, and songs tell the story of the ordinary and extraordinary people who have populated the United States and propelled it into the 21st century. The genres of music explored through Ballad of America include traditional folk songs, fiddle tunes, ballads (both Old and New World), sea shanties, railroad and cowboy songs, Appalachian, ragtime, spirituals, work songs, minstrel, blues, jazz, jug band, rhythm and blues, old-time, country and western, Cajun, bluegrass, and rock & roll.

Featured Article

Unaccompanied singing is characteristic of remote communities. Because it does not require instruments, which are often expensive, fragile, and difficult to construct, it can be practiced by those of extremely limited means. Three unaccompanied singing traditions of Southern Appalachia have attracted considerable interest over the past century: ballad singing, lined-out hymnody, and shape-note singing. On the surface, they have little in common. Ballad singing is practiced by an individual, while both lined-out hymnody and shape-note singing require a roomful of people. Ballads describe horrific crimes and tragic love affairs, while hymns and shape-note texts reflect Christian beliefs. Both ballads and lined-out hymnody consist of a single melody, while shape-note songs are harmonized in three or four parts. And finally, ballads and lined-out hymnody are passed primarily through oral tradition, while shape-note songs are learned from printed tunebooks.

Despite these basic differences, the three traditions have more in common than it may seem.

Read Unaccompanied Singing Traditions of Southern Appalachia