List of North American folk music traditions

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.

Country Elements Dance Instrumentation Other topics
Aanishanabe See Ojibwa
African American blues - blues-harp - boat song - field holler - fife and drum band - freedom song - funereal music - gospel - lining out - shape-note - Shout - spiritual - work song blues dance - hambone - juba dance - ring dance - shout banjo - bones - cowbell - diddley bow - fiddle - harmonica - tambourine - washtub bass blue note - camp meeting - Election Day celebration - Great Awakening - Pinkster
Anglo-American ballad - folk hymn - protest song - sea shanty - shape note - singing barn dance - Country-western two-step - longways - jig - reel - square dance fiddle - flute - guitar - harpsichord - violin Caller - Shakers
Apache Apache fiddle - pot drum - water drum
Appalachian ballad - Blue Ridge fiddling - bluegrass - Child ballad - close harmony - folk hymn - jug band - lining out - North Georgia fiddling - old-time music - scolding ballad - shape note - singing - string band clogging autoharp - banjo - cello - cornstalk fiddle - dulcimer - fiddle - flute - guitar - harmonica - mandolin folk revival - hillbilly
Arapaho Ghost Dance - peyote song rabbit dance - round dance - snake dance - Sun Dance - turtle dance Ghost Dance
Blue Ridge See Appalachian
Cajun polka - two-step - waltz accordion - fiddle - guitar - spoons - triangle - washboard
Cape Breton See Irish- and Scottish-Canadian
Cherokee stomp dance rattle
Chickasaw stomp dance
Chippewa See Ojibwa
Choctaw stomp dance
Cree fiddle
Dakota See Sioux
Dinéh See Navajo
English-American See Anglo-American
Finnish-American See Finnish
French-American See French
German- and Moravian-American collegia musica - cornet band - Moravian funereal music - trombone choir hautboy - kettle drum - trumpet - viol Ephrata Cloister - liederkranz - Singstunde
Hopi See Pueblo
Illinois calumet dance berdache - calumet
Inuit ayaya - kattajaq - pisiq - throat-singing drum dance - jig - kalattuut - reel accordion - drum angakkog
Irish- and Scottish-Canadian ballad - Cape Breton fiddling - emigrant ballad - sean nos - shape note reel - step dance - strathspey fiddle ceilidh
Irish-American ballad - emigrant ballad - sean nos clogging - hornpipe - jig - reel - step dance - square dance banjo - dulcimer - fiddle - guitar - harmonica - mandolin
Iroquois Eagle Dance - Quiver Dance - Warrior's Stomp Dance drum - rattle - water drum
Italian-American See Italy
Japanese-American See Japanese
Jewish-American cantorial chant - klezmer bulgar - doina - freylekh - hora - khosidl - mazurka - nigun - polka - sirba - waltz cello - clarinet - double bass - flute - tsimbl - violin badkhn - Freygish - kapelye
Lakota See Sioux
Louisiana Creole la la - mellows - zydeco bamboula - ring dance accordion - fiddle - guitar - washboard Congo Square - fais-do-do
Maritime Canada Cape Breton fiddling - milling song jig - reel accordion - fiddle - piano
Menomini water drum
Metis step dance fiddle
Mexican, Mejicano, Hispanic, New Mexico and Tejano alabado - bravata - California mission music - conjunto - copla - corrido - estribillo - huapango arribeño - jarabe - letra - mariachi - Matachines - Mexican son - pirekua - son huasteco - sones abajeños - sones calentanos - sones de arpa grande - sones istmeños - son jaliscense - son jarocho - topada - vallena - zandunga chotis - jarabe tapatío - jarana - Matachines - mazurka - polka - raspa - redowa - waltz - xtoles - zandunga - zapateado accordion - angelus bell - bajo sexto - fiddle - harp - huapanguera - jarana - guitarra quinta - guitarrón - mission bell - requinto - vihuela - violin trovadore - vaquero
Moravian-American See German-American
Navajo gift song - signal song - sway song - Yeibichai circle dance - Squaw Dance pot drum - rattle - water drum Blessingway - Enemyway - Ghostway - hataałii - hózhǫ́ - Nightway - Yeibichai
New England folk hymn - lining out - Old Way of Singing - psalmody - shape note barn dance
Newfoundland ballad - sea shanty - sean nos hornpipe - jig - reel - step dance - square dance bodhrán - fiddle - guitar - harmonica - accordion - spoons
New Mexico See Mexican / Hispanic
Ojibwa war song water drum
Omaha pipe dance
Pueblo Matachines - work song Matachines Anasazi flute - drum - flageolet New Mexico - Shalako
Quebecois accord de pieds
San Ildefonso See Pueblo
Santo Domingo See Pueblo
Scottish-Canadian See Irish- and Scottish-Canadian
Sioux Grass Dance bell - drum - rattle
Southern states ballad - brass band - Delta blues - blues-harp - fife and drum band - folk hymn - jug band - Sacred Harp - shape note - Southern gospel - white spiritual barn dance - chicken in the breadtray - clogging - fisher's hornpipe - Highland fling - jig - lancer - pigeonwing - polka - quadrille - reel - square dance - waltz banjo - dulcimer - fiddle - guitar - harmonica - mandolin singing
Taos Pueblo See Pueblo
Tejano, sometimes called Tex-Mex See Mexican
Tohono O'odham chicken scratch (waila) - conjunto chotis - mazurka - polka - waila accordion - bass guitar - drum - fiddle - guitar piest
Ukrainian-American and Canadian See Ukrainian
Western Canada and the United States cattle call - cowboy song - frontier ballad - holler - waltz - Western swing - work song square dance accordion - banjo - fiddle - guitar - harmonica Caller - Chisholm Trail - cowboy poetry - medicine show
Yaqui Danza del Venado
Zuni See Pueblo


See also


This page was last updated at 2023-10-30 16:36 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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