A folk song is a song that originates among the people of a country or area, passed by oral tradition from one singer or generation to the next, often existing in several versions. Folk music is a genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some features of folk music that one might use to define it include:
- It is transmitted orally (no longer exclusively orally).
- Songs have unknown composers.
- Played on traditional instruments.
- Songs are about a particular culture or event.
- Music is played on certain days of the year and at particular festivals.
- Songs are associated with folklore and myth.
A song becomes a folk song when it has passed from one persons mouth to another person's ear, from one generation to the next, without a pencil or paper, as described by Adam Miller, a folksinger and storyteller. Folk songs are sung by the people rather than by professional musicians, and they reflect the tenderest and most creative impulses of the human heart, casting upon our often harsh and melancholy tradition a luster of true beauty.
