Folk music

Folk music, traditional popular music of a regional or ethnic group. Compositions are usually anonymous and, being in the main orally transmitted, often occur in several different versions. Folk music of the United States includes the English ballads of Kentucky, Mexican music of the Southwest, and African American music of the South. Among classical composers influenced by folk music are Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodaly, Aaron Copland, and Ralph Vaughan Williams.