folk music

noun
1.
music, usually of simple character and anonymous authorship, handed down among the common people by oral tradition.
2.
music by known composers that has become part of the folk tradition of a country or region.

Origin:
1885–90

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
folk music
 
n
1.  Compare art music music that is passed on from generation to generation by oral tradition
2.  any music composed in the idiom of this oral tradition

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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00:10
Folk music is always a great word to know.
So is interrobang. Does it mean:
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.
Etymonline
Word Origin & History

folk music
1889, from folk (also cf. folklore). In reference to the branch of modern popular music (originally associated with Greenwich Village in New York City) it dates from 1958.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Cultural Dictionary

folk music definition


A kind of music originating from the ordinary people of a region or nation and continued by oral tradition. The ballad is a typical form of folk music. Music is also called “folk” when it is made by artists and composers who are inspired by, or imitate, true folk music. Composers such as Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie are folk musicians of the second kind.

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Example sentences
It is set to nine old songs, which have the rough-hewn quality of folk music.
Nine stages throughout the festival grounds present folk music, dancing,
  storytelling and cultural presentations.
Folk music articles and reviews, and notices about upcoming festivals.
The sound of folk music sometimes ushers you to dance in the streets.
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