Survey of the American Ballads in 1960s and 1970s.doc

美国二十世纪六七十年代民谣概述survey of the american ballads in 1960s and 1970scontentsabstract 1key word. 1i. historical background.21. every ballad has its story2 2. general historical background and historical events. 3. ballads folk songs root music51. the definition of the ballads，folk songs and root music.52. what kind of ballads could stand for in 1960s and 1970s?73. negro folk expression: ballads .8. the ballad in america and ballad culture101. what can ballad teach us about cultural identity in the u.s.?102. who could be the pioneer of the ballad in 1960s and 1970s? what are their articles?.12. how is ballad related to historical events?.17. how is american ballad similar to american literature? .18. conclusion.19reference20survey of the american ballads in 1960s and 1970s摘要：二十世纪六七十年代的美国是一个经济快速发展的国家，繁荣的经济给这个国家带来了富裕的生活的同时，也带来了一系列的社会问题。在这样的社会背景下，作为人们借以表达思想的民谣，也呈现出一些与其他时代，其他地方不同之处。美国民谣在这一时期的独特性吸引着人们去探究。本文将涉及到一些民谣的基本知识，以此着手分析美国民谣的产生、发展，及其代表人物及作品。美国民谣受当时美国社会的运动及思潮的影响，因而真实地反映了历史。一些经典的民谣也影响着人们的价值观人生观的同时，也深刻地影响到了美国的文学创作，与美国文化融会贯通。值得一提的是在美国文化中很重要的黑人文化，正是通过民谣的形式为美国当时乃至今时主流社会所接受。美国民谣在二十世纪六七十年代的发展是辉煌的，不仅作用于当时,更是渗透今日美国社会与文化之中。关键词： 民歌 反文化运动 反对越南战争 民谣文化abstract: the american ballads represent the characteristic image of the historical events. during the 1960s and 1970s, american society witnessed a great difference from other periods in the history of the u.s. here in this passage, a shallow approach into the american ballads of that period, say, the definition of the ballads，folk songs and root music and their relationship, will be made. as part of the american culture, the negro folk expression also played an important role in the history of the american ballads. having greatly affected the american society at that time, the american ballads have now become a useful pass way back to the historical events. they impact not only the american literature, but also the whole american culture. the variation between ballad cultures is what has been so absorbing to the people interested. now follow me to the american ballads of that time.key word: folk/root music counter-culture movements the vietnam protest the ballad culturesurvey of the american ballads in 1960s and 1970s. historical background1. every ballad has its storyto appreciate the diversity of ideas and experiences that have shaped our history, we need to be sensitive to the complexities and varieties of cultural documentation, to the enormous possibilities these documents afford us to get at the interior of american lives, to get at peoples long excluded from the american experience, many of them losers in their own time, outlaws, rebels who - individually or collectively - tried to flesh out and give meaning to abstract notions of liberty, equality and freedom. -leon litwack, ph.d. pulitzer prize winning historian, american roots music adviser every ballad has its story. the folk songs and ballads of early america describe life as experienced by the common people. they were sung within the family; mothers to daughters, fathers to sons, husbands and wives to each other. they were sung by neighbors or friends at gatherings of larger communities. the stories told were shaped into in the memories of those who heard them. in time, the listeners became the tellers and the cycle continued. what we have are records of moments in time, snapshots taken by people who were there. once a strictly aural and oral tradition, the words came to be written down, and the surviving lyrics deserve increased attention as valuable historic documents. every ballad has its story.in his book the ballad (1979), alan bold states, ballad stories tend to be autonomousthat is, they contain in themselves the information they explore. they do not seek historical . accuracy. considering this admission made by ballad scholars, one might question the validity of a folk song or ballad as a reliable source of american history. to treat them as a source, a historian must simply look at the pieces and put forth the same series of questions one would have with any other document. take, for example, the written correspondence from a civil war officer to his retired military father. the letter provides only the information the author chose to reveal. it certainly contains a point of view that is biased, though true to the experience of the author. even thus flawed, the snapshot image is worth looking at. like diaries and letters, antiquated maps and period photographs, ballads are significant sources of information. the famous team john a. and alan lomax traveled all over america recording examples of folk music. in their introduction to american ballads and folk songs (1994), john and lomax wrote, the gamut of human experience has been portrayed through this . literature of the people. history, indeed.2. general historical background and historical events in general, some kinds of historical events would promote the ballads to develop more quickly. as a cultural and social movement in the 1960s and 1970s, the civil rights movement was at a peak from 1955-1965. congress passed the civil rights act of 1964 and the voting rights act of 1965, guaranteeing basic civil rights of all americans, regardless of race, after nearly a decade of nonviolent protests and marches, ranging from the 1955-1956 montgomery bus boycott to the student-led sit-ins of the 1960s to the huge march on washington in 1963. this capstone is a course on cultural and social movement and change in the sixties and the consequences of that change for contemporary american society. no decade is more frequently or more heatedly discussed and contested in terms of its effects on contemporary american life than that of the 1960s. some view it as a period of profound and positive growth and community that was unfortunately disrupted by the coming of the disenchanted alienation of the me decade of the 1970s; others see it as the root of all our current social and political problems; still others see it merely as a time of weird hairstyles, fashion and music that can be appreciated but not taken very seriously.when examining this period closely, we need to explore its social and political movements, its cultural expressions and its contested meanings and legacies for the american landscape. more specifically, we need to look at the historical context of 20th century america, especially the post-wwii period, in order to situate what comes later, then discuss the rise of the civil rights movement, the new left, the student movement and other social and cultural manifestations of the period. a good portion of this focus will be on those movements and cultural changes that were associated with and affected by the american university, and the counter-culture will merit much attention. though concentrating on events and situations in the united states, some comparison to events and situations in other countries will be made.though there is much history to be learned here, this is not (merely) a history course.people want to learn not only a lot about what actually happened in the 1960s, but also some of the cultural and sociological arguments as to why it happened and what it meant for the people living in it, as well as for those of them living in its wake. so they will not be content to memorize a bunch of facts about e.g., who was important in the civil rights or student movements; they want to be able to begin to address why those movement emerged when they did, what drove them, how events and situations changed them, what ideas motivated them, what effects they had on the society around them. this will entail addressing information from a wide array of sources and with a wide range of disciplinary perspectives.they will also be keenly interested in using the course material to reflect on the single question that they believe is of central importance in the cultural and social sciences, a question of great importance also in the humanities and physical sciences. this is the question of the relationship between a (social/cultural) object (e.g., the political and cultural movements of the 1960s) and the person/s attempting to investigate and understand that object (in this case, all of us). in all forms of knowledge, the relationship between the knower/subject and the known/object is important to theorize and understand; this is even more the case in the cultural and social sciences precisely because the knower is so intimately, inextricably a part of the known. so they will constantly be reflecting on the question of the way in which their own interests, agendas, perspectives affect their knowledge and understanding of the events and movements of the 1960s and vice versa. to a fair degree, this question will be highlighted by the two different textbooks used: the chalmers book attempts to look at the object with some kind of detachment and objectivity, while the gitlin book much more clearly positions its author within the object studied and therefore inherently criticizes detachment.grades were not a popular thing for student participants in the movements of the 1960s, but, for better or worse, they are stuck with them (barring a reenactment of the events at columbia in 1968). however, they will endeavor to address one of the problems with traditional grading often discussed in the sixties: its one-sided, authoritarian nature. that is to say, though they will have grades, people will not be the sole grader in this course; they will do some of it too. a note on “cultural sociology” and historical background to the 1960s1) first stirrings of dissent: the baby boom in suburbia.2) civil rights movement. a) origins and sources. b) the crm up to 1964: mlk and the sclc; freedom summer. c) the crm post-1964: black power, sncc and the black panthers. 3) the old left and the origins of the student movement. 4) the university as social problem: the student movement.5) the vietnam war.6) the vietnam war (continued), and the origins of the counter-culture. 7) the beats and others. 8) the counter-culture: a generations search for authentic selves.9) the counter-culture: rock and roll, the theater of outlaws and the communes.10) in 1968: year of the barricades; ”decline and fall” of the 1960s. in 1960, a small group of young people formed students for a democratic society (sds) and adopted the port huron statement, written by student leader tom hayden. the manifesto urged participatory democracy, or the idea that all americans, not just a small elite, should decide major economic, political, and social issues that shaped the nation. it also criticized american society for its focus on career advancement, material possessions, military strength, and racism. by 1968 some 100,000 young people around the nation had joined sds.student protesters denounced corporate bureaucracy and campus administrators. universities and colleges, they believed, were dictatorial and exercised too much control over students. students held rallies and sit-ins to protest restrictions of their rights. in 1964 a coalition of student groups at the university of california, berkeley, claimed the right to conduct political activities on campus; the coalition became known as the free speech movement. political activism and protests spread to other campuses in the 1960s.the youth movements demonstrations soon merged with the protests of students who opposed the vietnam war. by the spring of 1968, student protests had reached hundreds of campuses. at the 1968 democratic national convention in chicago, antiwar demonstrators clashed with the police, and the images of police beating students shocked television audiences. violence peaked at an antiwar protest at ohios kent state university in may 1970, when national guard troops gunned down four student protesters.the political activities of the youth movement had enduring effects. colleges became less authoritarian, ending dress codes and curfews and recruiting more minority students. students also contributed mightily to the movement against the war in vietnam. both the counterculture and student activism, finally, fueled a backlash that blossomed in the 1970s and 1980s. the civil rights movement, the womens movement, the youth movement, and the environmental movement changed peoples lives. they also created a climate of rebellion, confrontation, and upheaval.the chaotic events of the 60s, including war and social change, seemed destined to continue in the 70s. major trends included a growing disillusionment of government, advances in civil rights, increased influence of the womens movement, a heightened concern for the environment, and increased space exploration. many of the radical ideas of the 60s gained wider acceptance in the new decade, and were mainstreamed into american life and culture. amid war, social realignment and presidential impeachment proceedings, american culture flourished. indeed, the events of the times were reflected in and became the inspiration for much of the music, literature, entertainment, and even fashion of the decade. . ballads folk songs root music 1.the definition of the ballads，folk songs and root music.the ballad, origin and still one of the main types of the folk songs, is a song that tells a story often about real events. ballads are in stanza form, where a melody is repeated for each of several verses, and may have a refrain that is repeated several times. and the 1960s started off with the spirit of hope and prosperity. great wealth and vast growth in the industrial sector of the united states gave the nation a general sense of security and prosperity. exploring the ideas of five movements: the civil rights movement, the students radicals of sds, the womens movement, the cultural radicals and lsd, and the vietnam protest. thus, the focus will be on giving summary of ballad for these criticisms of americans.short narrative folk song that fixes on the most dramatic part of a story, moving to its conclusion by means of dialogue and a series of incidents. the word ballad was first used in a general sense to mean a simple short poem. such a poem could be narrative or lyric, sung or not sung, crude or polite, sentimental or satiric, religious or secular; it was vaguely associated with dance. the word is still commonly used in this loose fashion. in the field of folklore, however, ballad is applied specifically to the kind of narrative folk song described in the opening lines. these narrative songs represent a type of literature and music that developed across europe in the late middle ages. unlike the medieval romances and rhymed tales, ballads tend to have a tight dramatic structure that sometimes omits all preliminary material, all exposition and description, even all motivation, to focus on the climactic scene (as in the british “lord randall”). it is as though the ballad presented only the last act of a play, leaving the listener or reader to supply the antecedent material. when the ballad emerged, it was a new form of art and literature, distinct from anything that had gone before.folk songs communicated the hopes, sorrows and convictions of ordinary peoples everyday lives. increasingly, music made by other groups of americans such as native americans, mexican-americans, and cajuns came under the umbrella of folk music. it was sung in churches, on front porches, in the fields and other workplaces, while rocking children to sleep, and at parties. the melodies and words were passed down from parent to child, though songs - and their meanings - often changed to reflect changing times.easier - folk music is traditional melodies, words, and songs of the common people that are often handed down from one generation to the next. harder - folk music songs deal with almost every kind of human activity. folk music often expresses the character of ethnic and social groups and sometimes a nation. it is the music of the people. a folk song can express political or religious beliefs, tell a story or describe history, or just provide amusement. folk music is usually learned by listening rather than by reading the notes or words. the music is shared from person to person, from place to place, and from generation to generation. folk song sometimes changes either by accident or from a purposeful alteration. folk song melodies and words often evolve over time. tunes are shortened or lengthened, pitches and rhythms are altered, and portions of one song may be combined with part of another. words of a song may also change over time. folk songs can often be classified into different types. the ballad, a song that tells a story often about real events, is one of the main types of folk song. ballads are in stanza form, where a melody is repeated for each of several verses, and may have a refrain that is repeated several times. another type of folk songs is those that deal with a particular activity, occupation, or set of circumstances. this group includes work songs, prison songs, war songs, and the like. there are also spiritual songs, songs for children, songs about lifes stages, and many songs are just for celebration, dance, and enjoyment. the term american roots music may not be a familiar one, and requires some explanation. at the beginning of the 20th century, the term folk music was used by scholars to describe music made by whites of european ancestry, often in the relatively isolated rural south. as the century progressed, the definition of folk music expanded to include the song styles - particularly the blues