Ballad of America preserves and celebrates music from America's diverse cultural history.
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
Live Events
Multimedia programs that entertain, inspire, and inform people of all ages, delivered in-person and online
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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
The pairing of fiddle and banjo is at the heart of the Appalachian instrumental music tradition. Although the two instruments are often played together, their histories could not be more different: the fiddle is a European instrument, brought to the United States primarily by British immigrants, while the banjo was developed by enslaved Africans who adapted their indigenous lutes to the New World. It was also musicians of African descent who first paired the fiddle and banjo, and their approaches to playing each have defined the sound of Appalachian music. However, there are as many styles of fiddle and banjo playing as there are individual musicians, each of whom develops a unique approach to music-making that is shaped by their own particular contexts.