Home

=Folk Protest Music=

Guthrie playing guitar.

Seeger Performing for an audience.

The New Deal and the WPA
The New Deal that was started under Franklin Delano Roosevelt brought traditional African-American folk songs to the attention of the middle class. The Works Progress Administration that was started under the FDR's new deal hired not only people for physical labor, but they hired actors and musicians as well. The WPA hired musicians to write and perform musical music as part of a civil works project in an effort to give them jobs to help relieve the unemployed during the Great Depression. The WPA started a folk music revival, as it payed musicians who brought music with its roots in African-American folk music to audiences across the U.S. The WPA promoted "promoted folk songs that they felt reflected the voice of the people(Facts on File, Brenner). They promoted the work of people such as Pete Seeger and Sarah Ogan Gunning, and encouraged them to spread folk songs.

Two other important government organizations for the preservation of folk music were the Federal Writers' Project and the Federal Music Project. The goal of the two organizations, especially the FMP was to preserve historical american heritage music. To do this, the Library of Congress sent people out to the rural south to record southerners to preserve their songs. One of the men who the Library of Congress sent out was John Lomax, who was the father of Alan Lomax. Alan Lomax came to be one of Woody Guthrie's biggest entusiasts, going to all of his shows and recording all of his work. The Lomaxes were essential in finding the famous musician Huddie Ledbetter, who came to be known as "Leadbelly", who was a famous African American folk singer.

Part of the reason that folk music was starting to be recorded and played was because of the invention of the phonograph, which was revolutionary technology that allowed musicians' songs to be recorded. Also the invention and popularization of the radio allowed wide audiences to listen to this recorded music.

Guthrie and Seeger
Along with Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie became a musician who vastly added to the folk music revival. He and Seeger used the folk music that they wrote and performed as a form of political protest. They protested against many social issues of the 1930s and 1940s. Their music came to be a very effective way to get their voices heard, as they became famous musicians who were heard by audiences across the U.S.

Their music is remembered for their leftist views on governmental issues. Many of their songs, especially Guthrie's, were anti-fascist, anti-capitalist, and pro-union. They were known for their songs that specifically were for the benefit for the "underdog", or for the workers who they felt were being particularly taken advantage of by big business and capitalism. This protest later caused Guthrie and Seeger to be denounced as Communists during the McCarthy era of the 1950s, which especially hurt Seeger.

Guthrie and Seeger also helped to popularize the idea of a hootenanny, which is an event where musicians played for each other and an audience.

In the 1950s, Pete Seeger and his band the Weavers were able to carry on his and Guthrie's mission to spread their messages in their music by playing for college campuses which helped to create a wider audience. The Weavers were instrumental in paving the way for folk music to enter mainstream culture and helped to create this new form of popular music.