This is a list of folk music traditions, with styles, dances, instruments and other related topics. The term folk music can not be easily defined in a precise manner; it is used with widely varying definitions depending on the author, intended audience and context within a work. Similarly, the term traditions in this context does not connote any strictly-defined criteria. Music scholars, journalists, audiences, record industry individuals, politicians, nationalists and demagogues may often have occasion to address which fields of folk music are distinct traditions based along racial, geographic, linguistic, religious, tribal or ethnic lines, and all such peoples will likely use different criteria to decide what constitutes a "folk music tradition". This list uses the same general categories used by mainstream, primarily English-language, scholarly sources, as determined by relevant statements of fact and the internal structure of works.
These traditions may coincide entirely, partially or not at all with geographic, political, linguistic or cultural boundaries. Very few, if any, music scholars would claim that there are any folk music traditions that can be considered specific to a distinct group of people and with characteristics undiluted by contact with the music of other peoples; thus, the folk music traditions described herein overlap in varying degrees with each other.
Titon, Jeff Todd; David Locke; David P. McAllester; Anne K. Rasmussen; Jonathan P. J. Stock; David B. Reck; John M. Schechter; Timothy Cooley; R. Anderson Sutton (2008). Jeff Todd Titon (ed.). Worlds of Music: An Introduction to the Music of the World's Peoples (Fifth ed.). New York: Schirmer Books/Cengage. ISBN978-0-02-872602-1.
^Darden, pp. 8, 43–45, 48, 57; Broughton, Viv, and James Attlee, "Devil Stole the Beat" in the Rough Guide to World Music, pp. 568–579; Crawford, pp. 107, 111–112, 409–411; Burk, Cassie, Wirginia Meierhoffer and Claude Anderson Phillips, pp. 96–97; van de Merwe; Titon, Jeff Todd, "North America/Black America" in Worlds of Music, pp. 106–166; Lornell, pp. 75–77, 82–83.
^Nettl, Folk and Traditional Music, p. 202; Crawford, pp. 70, 71, 157–158; Burk, Cassie, Wirginia Meierhoffer and Claude Anderson Phillips, pp. 11, 34; Lankford, p. 117; Lornell, pp. 65–67; World Music CentralArchived 2006-02-07 at the Wayback Machine
^Means, Andrew, "Ha-Ya-Ya-, Weya Ha-Ya-Ya!", in the Rough Guide to World Music, pp. 593–603; McAllester, David P., "North America/Native America" in Worlds of Music, pp. 16–66.
^Fussell, pp. 3, 6–10; Ritchie, pp. 52, 57; Barraclough, Nick and Kurt Wolff, "High an' Lonesome" in the Rough Guide to World Music, pp. 536–551; Crawford, p. 601; Burk, Cassie, Wirginia Meierhoffer and Claude Anderson Phillips, pp. 101–105; Lankford, p. 38; Lornell, pp. 15–17, 65–67, 82–83
^There is some ambiguity in usage regarding some of these terms. Bluegrass, for example, is not generally considered folk music, but is often loosely categorized along with it, and is especially associated with the Appalachian style. The term old-time music is also ambiguous, and can refer to styles of folk music from outside the Appalachian area. The American folk revival was a musical field in the 1950s and 60s that drew on many styles of American folk music, especially Appalachian music; however, the folk revival itself produced much undebateably popular music and little or no true folk music, depending on the precise definition of that term used.
^Nettl, Folk and Traditional Music, p. 161; McAllester, David P., "North America/Native America" in Worlds of Music, pp. 16–66; McAllester, David P., "North America/Native America" in Worlds of Music, pp. 16–66.
^Broughton, Simon, "Rhythm and Jews" in the Rough Guide to World Music, pp. 581–591; Lornell, pp. 77–78.
^Broughton, Simon and Jeff Kaliss, "Music Is the Glue", in the Rough Guide to World Music, pp. 552–567; Crawford, pp. 118–119; Burk, Cassie, Wirginia Meierhoffer and Claude Anderson Phillips, p. 99; Lornell, pp. 87–88
^ abMcAllester, David P., "North America/Native America" in Worlds of Music, pp. 16–66.
^Manuel, Popular Musics, pp. 54–56; Farquharson, Mary and Ramiro Burr, "Much More Than Mariachi" and "Accordion Enchilada", in the Rough Guide to World Music, pp. 463–476 and pp. 604–614; Nettl, Folk and Traditional Music, pp. 193–194; Burk, Cassie, Wirginia Meierhoffer and Claude Anderson Phillips, pp. 48–49, 52, 190–191; Lornell, pp. 22–23, 72–73, 78–79.
^Means, Andrew, "Ha-Ya-Ya-, Weya Ha-Ya-Ya!", in the Rough Guide to World Music, pp. 593–603; Nettl, Folk and Traditional Music, p. 165; McAllester, David P., "North America/Native America" in Worlds of Music, pp. 16–66.
^Means, Andrew, "Ha-Ya-Ya-, Weya Ha-Ya-Ya!", in the Rough Guide to World Music, pp. 593–603; Crawford, p. 8; Lornell, p. 22–23
^Crawford, pp. 162–164; Burk, Cassie, Wirginia Meierhoffer and Claude Anderson Phillips, p. 138; van de Merwe; Sawyers, pp. 197, 208; Lankford, pp. 38, 65–67, 75, 84–85; Abel, pp. 132–134, 172; World Music CentralArchived 2006-02-07 at the Wayback Machine
^Means, Andrew, "Ha-Ya-Ya-, Weya Ha-Ya-Ya!", in the Rough Guide to World Music, pp. 593–603; Lornell, pp. 73–74
^Crawford, p. 430, 433–435, 609; Burk, Cassie, Wirginia Meierhoffer and Claude Anderson Phillips, pp. 107, 187–189, 192–198; Lornell, pp. 74–75, 85–86.