A CULTURAL ECOLOGY OF APPALACHIAN MUSIC

Abstract

This study examines Appalachian music between the Reconstruction and World War II from an environmental perspective, in order to better understand the ways in which music reflects and expresses cultural ecology. During this time, two lineages of music diverge and coexist: an oral tradition, with agrarian roots, and a commercially recorded lineage, with roots in the emerging industrial, extractivist economy. Important differences in content and musical structure were found between these lineages, and these distinctions in turn offer insight into how cultural modes of production change in tandem with material modes of production. Music produced for commercial consumption during this time shows the influence of the industrial, extractivist project as a whole. It expresses a narrower range of emotions, is dislocated from particular people and places, and provides very limited social critique or questioning. These changes reflect a broader alienation between human ecology and natural ecology, as well as between people and production.