I’m not gonna fight you on this, because 95% of the time that statement is true. I’m a big folk-head, though it should be noted (and I know Citations Needed and other folks have stated this) that at many points in history the differentiation is more political than aural.
An immediate example was with old American labels and the splitting up of “country” and “race” records. The major difference there was often just skin color. Still, even in modern times the white Bela Fleck found himself getting into jazz because banjo didn’t apply to the country-sound that Nashville was curating at the time. So really, there’s various factors like race, instruments, themes, and vocal stylings that all come into play when defining these two genres that I won’t even bother getting into because I should go to bed at some point and I really shouldn’t write an essay this close to bed-time.
I’m not gonna fight you on this, because 95% of the time that statement is true. I’m a big folk-head, though it should be noted (and I know Citations Needed and other folks have stated this) that at many points in history the differentiation is more political than aural. An immediate example was with old American labels and the splitting up of “country” and “race” records. The major difference there was often just skin color. Still, even in modern times the white Bela Fleck found himself getting into jazz because banjo didn’t apply to the country-sound that Nashville was curating at the time. So really, there’s various factors like race, instruments, themes, and vocal stylings that all come into play when defining these two genres that I won’t even bother getting into because I should go to bed at some point and I really shouldn’t write an essay this close to bed-time.