Romancing the Folk in the Age of Hip Hop Wars: A Look at the Divergent Historical Narratives of Appalachian Folk and Gangsta Rap

This project compares two narratives of historical genres of music: Appalachian Folk and Gangsta Rap. In the early years of both genres, cultural critics decried Appalachian Folk (also known as Old-Time or early Country) and Gangsta Rap for an apparently poor quality in their production, and also for their perceived threat to decent culture and society in America. With this presentation I will compare the historical trajectories of both genres in an effort to explain why one genre (Appalachian Folk) became one of the nation\u27s cultural treasures, while the other (Gangsta Rap) has maintained its role as cultural pariah and villain. The divergence results primarily from changes in political and scholarly attitudes toward music of local and lower class cultures. In the case of Appalachian Folk, federal arts patronage programs and revived interest in folk music allowed a change in attitudes toward early recordings of mountain folk music. Such favorable changes did not exist for Gangsta Rap, as political and news media scrutiny of Gangsta Rap persisted beyond its early years, and a renewed scholarly interest in hip hop still consigns Gangsta artists to the role of villain in their studies. These are the larger explanations, but many other factors are involved