INTRODUCTION
Americana is a term that has become ubiquitous in its vague encompassing of anything considered to be “American roots”. The word summons hazy images of dusty antique shops cluttered with any number of nostalgic odds and ends, from Civil War buttons to vintage Coca Cola bottles, erratically displayed amidst piles of browned, curling jazz LP covers, circa 1950’s waffle irons, and a sea of other random and unmistakably “American” artifacts. Images like these can be comforting in their familiarity, but if we begin to scratch beneath the surface of how all these things came to be connected with each other, we may find ourselves very quickly overwhelmed. So we apply a convenient label – Americana – and go on about our day. This dusty antique shop image can also be symbolic of what has come to be known recently (within the last 20 or so years) as Americana music. It is essentially the same conglomeration of artifacts - sound artifacts, this time – heaped together into something that is unmistakable on the surface, but can be very puzzling at its core. To find the connective tissue that holds Americana music together, as well as truly define what the term itself means, one must dig deep and trace far, essentially all the way back to when America as we know it began to evolve into the country it is today. …show more content…
Since Americana as a genre has only existed for around 20 years, there is not a great deal of analytic literature on the topic yet published, and so the term remains somewhat ambiguous. Also, due to the unique nature of Americana containing such a widely varied set of musical styles, it is necessary to examine styles that formerly made up what is now referred to as the “Americana umbrella” – the sub-styles that factor heavily into the distinct sounds of
Americana is a term that has become ubiquitous in its vague encompassing of anything considered to be “American roots”. The word summons hazy images of dusty antique shops cluttered with any number of nostalgic odds and ends, from Civil War buttons to vintage Coca Cola bottles, erratically displayed amidst piles of browned, curling jazz LP covers, circa 1950’s waffle irons, and a sea of other random and unmistakably “American” artifacts. Images like these can be comforting in their familiarity, but if we begin to scratch beneath the surface of how all these things came to be connected with each other, we may find ourselves very quickly overwhelmed. So we apply a convenient label – Americana – and go on about our day. This dusty antique shop image can also be symbolic of what has come to be known recently (within the last 20 or so years) as Americana music. It is essentially the same conglomeration of artifacts - sound artifacts, this time – heaped together into something that is unmistakable on the surface, but can be very puzzling at its core. To find the connective tissue that holds Americana music together, as well as truly define what the term itself means, one must dig deep and trace far, essentially all the way back to when America as we know it began to evolve into the country it is today. …show more content…
Since Americana as a genre has only existed for around 20 years, there is not a great deal of analytic literature on the topic yet published, and so the term remains somewhat ambiguous. Also, due to the unique nature of Americana containing such a widely varied set of musical styles, it is necessary to examine styles that formerly made up what is now referred to as the “Americana umbrella” – the sub-styles that factor heavily into the distinct sounds of