"At the beginning of the 20th Century, the term "folk music" was used by scholars to describe music made by whites of European ancestry. Folk songs communicated the hopes, sorrows and convictions of ordinary people's everyday lives. The definition of folk music has been expanded to include the song styles of African Americans of the Mississippi Delta, Cajuns of southwest Louisiana, Native Americans and Mexican-Americans. It was sung in churches, on front porches, in the fields and other workplaces, while rocking children to sleep, and at parties. The melodies and words were passed down from parent to child, though songs - and their meanings - often changed to reflect changing times.


"Hillbilly" and "race" records become profitable recording industry genres that popularize regional music. The emergence of radio broadened audiences and helped the cross-fertilization of various musical forms. In the 1960s, awareness of folk songs and musicians grew, and popular musicians began to draw on folk music as an artistic source as never before. "Folk music" then became a form of popular music itself, popularized by singer/songwriters such as Bob Dylan, who helped pioneer the intimate, often acoustic performing style that echoed that of community-based folk musicians.
Music writers, scholars and fans began to look for new ways to describe the diverse array of musical styles still being sung and played in communities spreading across America and now throughout the world. The term "roots music" is now used to refer to this broad range of musical genres, which includes blues, gospel, traditional country, alt.country, folk, cajun and zydeco. " *