The article I chose to critique was The History of Folk Music by A’Shiah N. In the first paragraph the author dives into the definition of Folk Music, I would have liked to have seen a more direct definition of Folk music, specifically its importance in the rest of the article and on the Black Community in particular. I think a thesis could have been useful in this section, possibly a bit more context on the period. 

The second section delves into the origin of Folk and I think it was written very well, it covers the importance of Folk music to the history of slavery, the legacy and to the significance of suffering to and by African Americans. 

The third section covered the specific instruments used to compose Folk music and their ties to Africa and how they have traveled a long way and shaped American music as a whole. I thought it was interesting that slave captains are the ones who pushed to transport instruments, that was something I’ve never heard of before. 

The concept of hidden languages and codes tied to culture has to be my favorite part of the article and that shines through in the fourth section. I think it’s remarkable how a group of individuals put through so much trauma can still have hope and use their resources to rise above their circumstances. It is truly beautiful that music serves as one of those resources to this day. Finally section 5, it was interesting to read about how Folk adapted and changed throughout the years after its creation, I liked how the author tied it back into the aspect of profiting off of Black pain and suffering, it was nicely foreshadowed by section two. In conclusion, I could have used a bit more detail specifically what period Folk music came from and what African country Folk came from but aside from that, this article was a very interesting read that I learned a lot from.