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any genres of American music have fl ourished for decades, even cen-
turies, before spreading beyond the confi nes of the community of
their origin. In particular, music sung in languages other than English
has been slow to break out of its native social setting. The latter part of the
twentieth century, however, has seen widespread interest in music previously
thought to have limited appeal for broader audiences.
An agent in the dissemination of this traditional music has been the folk fes-
tival. As far back as the 1930s the National Folk Festival began its annual series
of multiethnic events. At fi rst held in Washington, D.C., the festival eventually
rotated to a new city every few years, often spawning a local festival in its wake.
The 1976 American bicentennial boosted further interest in folk music, which
since that time has often been referred to as roots music, distinguishing it from
the music of the urban folk revival (discussed in chapter 17).
This chapter samples only a few traditions of roots music. We have cho-
sen examples with some traits in common: all have been around for many
decades, all originated in the contact between two or more ethnic groups, all
are sung in languages other than English, and all have seen their audience
grow considerably in recent years, often due to their inclusion in multiethnic
folk festivals.THE MUSIC OF PANTRIBALISM
Alliances among American Indian nations have a long history, intensifying
in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century as Indians worked
together to fend off cultural collapse in the face of white conquest. This move-
ment toward pantribalism, also called pan-Indianism or intertribalism, led to a
greater exchange of cultural traditions and beliefs among Native peoples. With
new pantribal institutions came new music, blending characteristics of different
Native traditions. Three notable instances of pantribal music are the songs asso-
ciated with the Ghost Dance, the peyote religion, and the pow wow.CHAPTER
21
AMERICAN ROOTS
MUSIC
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