nation and national identity in the folk music revival movement of Canada and the United States from 1945 to 1980
By: by Gillian Anna Margaret Mitchell.
Published: 2004
Language: eng
Number of pages: 314
ISBN-13: 9780494159804
Subjects: History -- Canada -- 20th century.; History -- United States -- 20th century
Description: The thesis explores issues of nation and national identity in the folk music revival of the post-war period in America and Canada, with a particular focus on the apex of the movement in the 1960s. The thesis demonstrates that, during the 1960s, the folk revival promoted a vision of nation which was eclectic, regional and pluralist in character. Revivalists celebrated the diversity of the North American continent and were eager to explore its many cultures. One of the principal sources of this interest was the climate of political idealism of the early decade---civil rights and the New Left encouraged a vision of unity in diversity, a vision which was mirrored in the outlook of the folk revival. This eclectic vision would decline by the mid-1960s, however. Folk revival performers were beginning to drift beyond the bounds of the original movement and experiment with electric and rock music styles. Furthermore, external events were pulling Canada and America apart; as America faced a period of severe societal and political crisis, Canada was celebrating its centennial of confederation. Concerns of nationalism crept into Canadian popular music expression, pulling it away from the 'North American dream' of the early decade and the folk revival. American musicians, meanwhile, frequently retreated altogether from politics, and no longer optimistically celebrated the diversity of their country. The pluralistic vision was now on the wane, and those who did perform North American ethnic and regional music styles in the 1970s tended to do so in a spirit of nostalgia and reaction rather than with an optimistic focus on present and future.
Notes: Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Toronto, 2004.

Includes bibliographical references.

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