Abstract:

In 1952 the anthropologist, archivist, and artist Harry Smith finally released the three albums of folk music collected from commercial recordings from the 1920’s and 30’s on Moses Asch’s Folkways label.

This article will discuss the gradual development of the notion of ‘authenticity’ through the most eminent direct or indirect participants in the Anthology, and in what ways they were complicit in the construction of such a concept. It will trace the lineage of the music of the Anthology, and exhibit the connections between these disparate creative elements, in an attempt to present a comprehensive picture of how ‘authenticity’ is fabricated in this case.

It will also explore the apparent distinction between folk and pop culture and the way in which they are separated further through being branded ‘authentic’ or ‘inauthentic’. The aim is to demonstrate that everyone involved in whatever capacity in the Anthology was discovering the same idea of ‘authenticity’, vulnerable to the same marketed ‘authenticity’, and complicit in the same fabrication of ‘authenticity’.

Author: Rory Crutchfield