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Americana refers to artifacts of the culture of the United States
Culture of the United States

The development of the culture of the United States of America ? Music of the United States, Cinema of the United States, Dance of the United States, Architecture of the United States, Literature of the United States, Poetry of the United States, Cuisine of the United States and the Visual arts of the United States ? has been marked by a tens...
, the history
History of the United States

The first known inhabitants of modern-day United States territory are believed to have arrived over a period of several thousand years beginning sometime prior to 15,000 - 50,000 years ago by crossing Beringia into Alaska....
 and folklore
Folklore of the United States

The folklore of the United States, or American folklore, is one of the folk traditions which has evolved on the North American continent since Europeans arrived in the 16th century....
 resultant from its westward expansion. Examples of this culture include muscle car
Muscle car

Muscle car is a term used to refer to a variety of high performance automobiles. At its most widely accepted the term refers to American 2-door rear wheel drive mid-size cars of the late 1960s and early 1970s equipped with large, powerful V8 engines and sold at an affordable price for street use and automobile racing, formally and informal...
s including AMC
AMC

AMC may refer to:* AMC , a short-lived British steam car manufactured in London in 1910* AMC , an American cable television channel* AMC 3 and...
, Route 66, baseball
Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport of nine players each. The goal of baseball is to score run by hitting a thrown Baseball with a baseball bat and touching a series of four markers called base arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot square, or diamond. Players on one team take turns hitting against...
, apple pie
Apple pie

An apple pie is a fruit pie in which the principal filling ingredient is apples . It is sometimes served with whipped cream on top of it. Pastry is generally used top-and-bottom, making a double-crust pie, the upper crust of which may be a disk shaped crust or a pastry lattice woven of strips; exceptions are deep-dish apple pie with a to...
, Superman
Superman

Superman is a Character , a comic book superhero widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, Ohio, and sold to DC Comics in 1938, the character first appeared in Action Comics Action Comics 1 and subseque...
, the diner
Diner

A diner is a Prefabrication restaurant building characteristic of North America, especially on Long Island; in New York City; in New Jersey, and other areas of the Northeastern United States, although examples can be found throughout the US and in Canada....
, wagon trains, jazz
Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
, the music of Stephen Foster
Stephen Foster

Stephen Collins Foster , known as the "father of American music," was the pre-eminent songwriter in the United States of the 19th century. His songs, such as "Oh! Susanna", "Camptown Races", "Old Folks at Home" , "My Old Kentucky Home", "Old Black Joe", and "Beautiful Dreamer" remain popular over 150 years after their composition....
, George Gershwin
George Gershwin

George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. He wrote most of his vocal and theatrical works in collaboration with his elder brother, lyricist Ira Gershwin....
's Rhapsody in Blue
Rhapsody in Blue

Rhapsody in Blue is a musical composition by George Gershwin for solo piano and jazz band written in 1924, which combines elements of European classical music with jazz-influenced effects....
, Richard Rodgers
Richard Rodgers

Richard Charles Rodgers was an United States Musical compositionr of the music for more than 900 songs and 40 Broadway theatre musicals. He also composed music for films and television....
' Slaughter On 10th Avenue
Slaughter On 10th Avenue

Slaughter on 10th Avenue is the debut album by Mick Ronson, released in 1974....
, the music of Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland was an American classical music composer of concert and film music, as well as an accomplished pianist. Instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, he was widely known as "the dean of American composers." Copland's music achieved a balance between modernism music and American folk styles....
 (notably his Fanfare for the Common Man
Fanfare for the Common Man

Fanfare for the Common Man is a work by List of American composers Aaron Copland, and one of the most recognizable pieces of 20th century American classical music....
), and rockabilly
Rockabilly

Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, and emerged in the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a Portmanteau word of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development....
; and American art
Art

Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music and literature....
, such as that of Frederic Remington
Frederic Remington

Frederic Sackrider Remington was an United States painting, illustrator, sculpture, and writer who specialized in depictions of the American Old West, specifically concentrating on the last quarter of the 19th century American West and images of cowboys, Native Americans in the United States, and the U.S....
, Grant Wood
Grant Wood

Grant DeVolson Wood was an United States Painting, born in Anamosa, Iowa, Iowa. He is best known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest, particularly the painting American Gothic, an iconic image of the 20th century....
, and Norman Rockwell
Norman Rockwell

Norman Percevel Rockwell was a 20th century Americana Painting and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad Popular culture appeal in the United States, where Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening Post magazine over more than four decades....
, all based on American folk art
Folk art

Folk art describes a wide range of objects that reflect the craft traditions and traditional social values of various social groups. Folk art is generally produced by people who have little or no academic artistic training, nor a desire to emulate "fine art", and use established techniques and styles of a particular region or culture....
 and fictional characters such as Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny

Bugs Bunny is a fictional rabbit who appears in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animation films produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, which became Warner Bros....
, Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse

Mickey Mouse is a funny animal cartoon character who has become an icon for The Walt Disney Company. Mickey Mouse was created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks and voiced by Walt Disney....
, The Muppets
The Muppets

----The Muppets are a group of puppet characters created by Jim Henson. Individually, a Muppet is one of the puppets made by Jim Henson or his The Jim Henson Company....
 and The Simpsons
The Simpsons

The Simpsons is an Television in the United States animated cartoon Situation comedy created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company....
.

a class="link1" onMouseover='showByLink("m822632",this)' onMouseout='hide("m822632")'href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Music">music
Music

Music is an art form whose media is sound organized in time. Common elements of music are pitch , rhythm , dynamics , and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture ....
, Americana
Americana (music)

Americana is an amalgam of roots music fused by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the American musical ethos; specifically those sounds that are merged from folk, country, rhythm & blues, rock & roll and other external influential styles....
 is a loose subset of American folk music
American folk music

American folk music, also known as roots music, is a broad category of music including bluegrass music, country music, gospel music, old time music, jug bands, Appalachian folk music, blues, Cajun music and Native American music....
, that is perhaps best defined as "classic American music"—ranging in style from roots-based bluegrass
Bluegrass music

Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and is a sub-genre of country music. It has its own roots in Folk music of Ireland, Music of Scotland, Music of Wales and Folk Music of England traditional music....
 to alternative country
Alternative country

Alternative country is a term used to describe a number of country music genre that tend to differ from Mainstream or pop music country music....
, gospel
Gospel music

Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
, blues, zydeco
Zydeco

'Zydeco' is a form of American roots or traditional music. It evolved in southwest Louisiana in the early 20th century from forms of Louisiana Creole music....
, and other native forms. One of the main reasons Americana is used to describe such a wide variety of musical genres is because of the diverse range of cultural influences which is called American.






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Dinner Freehold Nj
Americana refers to artifacts of the culture of the United States
Culture of the United States

The development of the culture of the United States of America ? Music of the United States, Cinema of the United States, Dance of the United States, Architecture of the United States, Literature of the United States, Poetry of the United States, Cuisine of the United States and the Visual arts of the United States ? has been marked by a tens...
, the history
History of the United States

The first known inhabitants of modern-day United States territory are believed to have arrived over a period of several thousand years beginning sometime prior to 15,000 - 50,000 years ago by crossing Beringia into Alaska....
 and folklore
Folklore of the United States

The folklore of the United States, or American folklore, is one of the folk traditions which has evolved on the North American continent since Europeans arrived in the 16th century....
 resultant from its westward expansion. Examples of this culture include muscle car
Muscle car

Muscle car is a term used to refer to a variety of high performance automobiles. At its most widely accepted the term refers to American 2-door rear wheel drive mid-size cars of the late 1960s and early 1970s equipped with large, powerful V8 engines and sold at an affordable price for street use and automobile racing, formally and informal...
s including AMC
AMC

AMC may refer to:* AMC , a short-lived British steam car manufactured in London in 1910* AMC , an American cable television channel* AMC 3 and...
, Route 66, baseball
Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport of nine players each. The goal of baseball is to score run by hitting a thrown Baseball with a baseball bat and touching a series of four markers called base arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot square, or diamond. Players on one team take turns hitting against...
, apple pie
Apple pie

An apple pie is a fruit pie in which the principal filling ingredient is apples . It is sometimes served with whipped cream on top of it. Pastry is generally used top-and-bottom, making a double-crust pie, the upper crust of which may be a disk shaped crust or a pastry lattice woven of strips; exceptions are deep-dish apple pie with a to...
, Superman
Superman

Superman is a Character , a comic book superhero widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, Ohio, and sold to DC Comics in 1938, the character first appeared in Action Comics Action Comics 1 and subseque...
, the diner
Diner

A diner is a Prefabrication restaurant building characteristic of North America, especially on Long Island; in New York City; in New Jersey, and other areas of the Northeastern United States, although examples can be found throughout the US and in Canada....
, wagon trains, jazz
Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
, the music of Stephen Foster
Stephen Foster

Stephen Collins Foster , known as the "father of American music," was the pre-eminent songwriter in the United States of the 19th century. His songs, such as "Oh! Susanna", "Camptown Races", "Old Folks at Home" , "My Old Kentucky Home", "Old Black Joe", and "Beautiful Dreamer" remain popular over 150 years after their composition....
, George Gershwin
George Gershwin

George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. He wrote most of his vocal and theatrical works in collaboration with his elder brother, lyricist Ira Gershwin....
's Rhapsody in Blue
Rhapsody in Blue

Rhapsody in Blue is a musical composition by George Gershwin for solo piano and jazz band written in 1924, which combines elements of European classical music with jazz-influenced effects....
, Richard Rodgers
Richard Rodgers

Richard Charles Rodgers was an United States Musical compositionr of the music for more than 900 songs and 40 Broadway theatre musicals. He also composed music for films and television....
' Slaughter On 10th Avenue
Slaughter On 10th Avenue

Slaughter on 10th Avenue is the debut album by Mick Ronson, released in 1974....
, the music of Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland was an American classical music composer of concert and film music, as well as an accomplished pianist. Instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, he was widely known as "the dean of American composers." Copland's music achieved a balance between modernism music and American folk styles....
 (notably his Fanfare for the Common Man
Fanfare for the Common Man

Fanfare for the Common Man is a work by List of American composers Aaron Copland, and one of the most recognizable pieces of 20th century American classical music....
), and rockabilly
Rockabilly

Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, and emerged in the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a Portmanteau word of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development....
; and American art
Art

Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music and literature....
, such as that of Frederic Remington
Frederic Remington

Frederic Sackrider Remington was an United States painting, illustrator, sculpture, and writer who specialized in depictions of the American Old West, specifically concentrating on the last quarter of the 19th century American West and images of cowboys, Native Americans in the United States, and the U.S....
, Grant Wood
Grant Wood

Grant DeVolson Wood was an United States Painting, born in Anamosa, Iowa, Iowa. He is best known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest, particularly the painting American Gothic, an iconic image of the 20th century....
, and Norman Rockwell
Norman Rockwell

Norman Percevel Rockwell was a 20th century Americana Painting and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad Popular culture appeal in the United States, where Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening Post magazine over more than four decades....
, all based on American folk art
Folk art

Folk art describes a wide range of objects that reflect the craft traditions and traditional social values of various social groups. Folk art is generally produced by people who have little or no academic artistic training, nor a desire to emulate "fine art", and use established techniques and styles of a particular region or culture....
 and fictional characters such as Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny

Bugs Bunny is a fictional rabbit who appears in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animation films produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, which became Warner Bros....
, Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse

Mickey Mouse is a funny animal cartoon character who has become an icon for The Walt Disney Company. Mickey Mouse was created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks and voiced by Walt Disney....
, The Muppets
The Muppets

----The Muppets are a group of puppet characters created by Jim Henson. Individually, a Muppet is one of the puppets made by Jim Henson or his The Jim Henson Company....
 and The Simpsons
The Simpsons

The Simpsons is an Television in the United States animated cartoon Situation comedy created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company....
.

Music

In music
Music

Music is an art form whose media is sound organized in time. Common elements of music are pitch , rhythm , dynamics , and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture ....
, Americana
Americana (music)

Americana is an amalgam of roots music fused by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the American musical ethos; specifically those sounds that are merged from folk, country, rhythm & blues, rock & roll and other external influential styles....
 is a loose subset of American folk music
American folk music

American folk music, also known as roots music, is a broad category of music including bluegrass music, country music, gospel music, old time music, jug bands, Appalachian folk music, blues, Cajun music and Native American music....
, that is perhaps best defined as "classic American music"—ranging in style from roots-based bluegrass
Bluegrass music

Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and is a sub-genre of country music. It has its own roots in Folk music of Ireland, Music of Scotland, Music of Wales and Folk Music of England traditional music....
 to alternative country
Alternative country

Alternative country is a term used to describe a number of country music genre that tend to differ from Mainstream or pop music country music....
, gospel
Gospel music

Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
, blues, zydeco
Zydeco

'Zydeco' is a form of American roots or traditional music. It evolved in southwest Louisiana in the early 20th century from forms of Louisiana Creole music....
, and other native forms. One of the main reasons Americana is used to describe such a wide variety of musical genres is because of the diverse range of cultural influences which is called American. For example, traditional Bluegrass instrumentation consists of the banjo which originated on the African continent, guitars from Europe, fiddling styles which have their roots in traditional Irish and other Gaelic fiddling techniques, and yodeling
Yodeling

Yodeling is a form of singing that involves singing an extended note which rapidly and repeatedly changes in pitch from the vocal or chest register to the falsetto voice, making a high-low-high-low sound....
 from alpine regions of Europe.

Americana radio

Americana is a format in commercial, non-commercial
Public broadcasting

Public broadcasting includes radio, television and other electronic mass media outlets that receive some or all of their funding from the public....
, terrestrial, satellite
Satellite radio

A satellite radio or subscription radio is a digital radio signal that is broadcast by a communications satellite, which covers a much wider geographical range than terrestrial radio signals....
 and internet radio
Internet radio

Internet radio is an audio broadcasting service transmitted via the Internet. Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as webcasting since it is not transmitted broadly through wireless means....
. The Americana Music Association (AMA) has created a chart which documents Americana radio, with approximately 75 Americana radio stations and programs.

Americana in literature

Eric Flint
Eric Flint

Eric Flint is an American List of science fiction authors, editing, and publishing. The majority of his main works are alternate history science fiction, but he also writes humorous fantasy adventures....
's novel 1632
1632 (novel)

1632 is the initial novel in the best-selling alternate history 1632 series book series written by historian, writer and editor Eric Flint. The flagship novel kicked off a collaborative fiction effort that has involved hundreds of contributors and dozens of authors....
 was an experiment in the power of ideas wrapped up in Americana wherein he explores the effect of transporting a mass of people through time — in the case of this series, the small fictional town of Grantville, West Virginia
West Virginia

West Virginia is a U.S. state in the Appalachian, Upland South, and Mid-Atlantic States regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia on the southeast, Kentucky on the southwest, Ohio on the northwest, and Pennsylvania and Maryland on the northeast....
 from the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 in the year 2000 to central Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
 in the year 1631. The best selling series
1632 series

The 1632 series, also known as the 1632-verse or Ring of Fire series, is an Alternate history book series, created, primarily co-written, and coordinated by historian Eric Flint....
 of novels and anthologies asks the what-if question: "What might history have been like had a typical American town influenced European thought from the time of the earliest days of Christian on Christian religious conflict (The Thirty Years' War
Thirty Years' War

The Thirty Years' War was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history. The war was fought primarily in Germany and at various points involved most of the countries of Europe....
) and Imperialism
Imperialism

Imperialism has two meanings; one describing an action and the other describing an attitude.#Action: Imperialism is the practice of extending the power, control or rule by one country over areas outside its borders....
/Colonialism
Colonialism

Colonialism is the extension of a nation's sovereignty over Territory beyond its borders by the establishment of either settler or exploitation colony in which Indigenous people populations are direct rule, Population transfers, or Genocide....
." In other words, with this premise, Flint decided to hold both the Industrial revolution
Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was a period in the late 18th and early 19th centuries when major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, production, and transportation had a profound effect on the socioeconomics and cultural conditions in United Kingdom....
 and the American revolution
American Revolution

The American Revolution refers to the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which the Thirteen Colonies of North America overthrew the governance of the British Empire and then rejected the British monarchy to become the sovereign United States of America....
 (political and social) years early from a new location in central Germany
Holy Roman Empire

The Holy Roman Empire was a union of territories in Central Europe during the Middle Ages and the Early modern Europe under a Holy Roman Emperor....
; the result is mostly very American and the social, religious, and political sub-conflicts and conflicts to European thinking and practices are very informative as to what makes Americans American in thought, words, and deeds, and in contrast, a nifty benefit, presents a thoughtful in depth picture of European thought and attitudes of that crucial time.

Visual art

In the visual fine arts, Americana usually indicates a concern with the ordinary aspects of historic American culture: carnivals, popular amusements such as side-shows, vernacular typography and signage, old horror movies in the "haunted house" genre, the old West, and the backwoods cultures. It has increasingly veered off into a dark Gothic approach to Americana that was first visualised by U.S. writers such as Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was an American poet, Short story writer, Editing and Literary criticism, and is considered part of the American Romanticism. Best known for his tales of Mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the Detective fiction genre....
 and Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury

Ray Douglas Bradbury is an United States literature, fantasy, Horror fiction, science fiction, and mystery writer.Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles, Bradbury is widely considered one of the greatest and most popular American writers of speculative fiction of the twentieth century....
.

Americana movies

  • Hootenanny Hoot (1963) - featuring Johnny Cash, Judy Henske, The Brothers Four, etc.


See also

  • American Studies
    American studies

    American studies or American civilization is an Interdisciplinarity dealing with the study of the United States. It incorporates the study of Economy of the United States, History of the United States, American literature, art of the United States, Mass media, American cinema, urban studies, women's studies, and culture of the United St...
    • American Studies in Britain
      American Studies in Britain

      American Studies is taught at some British universities and incorporated in several school subjects, such as history, politics and literature. While the United States of America is the focus of most study, American Studies can also include the study of all the Americas, including South America and Canada....
  • Americana/Lesourdesville Lake Amusement Park
    Americana/Lesourdesville Lake Amusement Park

    Americana/LeSourdsville Lake Amusement Park was an amusement park located in Monroe, Ohio, USA. This park is currently closed with no immediate plans to be reopened....
  • Australiana
    Australiana

    Australiana is an item of historical or cultural interest of Australian origins. Australiana often borrows from Indigenous Australians culture, or the stereotypical Australian culture of the early 1900s....
  • Canadiana
    Canadiana

    Canadiana is a term referring to things related to the country of Canada. It is most often used to refer to a class of books somewhat wider than Canadian Literature because it also includes books about Canada as well as Canadian non-fiction works....
  • Kiwiana
    Kiwiana

    Certain items and icons from New Zealand's cultural heritage are often called Kiwiana....
     (New Zealand)
  • Scouting in popular culture
    Scouting in popular culture

    Since Scouting began in 1907, it has entered into many elements of popular culture, including movies, TV and books.As a facet of culture throughout most of the 20th century, Scouting has been portrayed in numerous films and artwork....


External links

  • (Nashville
    Nashville, Tennessee

    Nashville is the Capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County, Tennessee. It is the second most populous city in the state after Memphis, Tennessee....
    )
  • - world's biggest alt-country website
  • - UK based Americana band
  • - Americana Music News & Resources
  • Independent Radio Promotion for the Americana radio format
  • - Description of "Hootenanny Hoot"
  • (Nashville
    Nashville, Tennessee

    Nashville is the Capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County, Tennessee. It is the second most populous city in the state after Memphis, Tennessee....
    )
  • - Americana indie musician
  • (New York
    New York

    The State of New York is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States and is the nation's List of U.S....
    )
  • - Americana
    Americana (music)

    Americana is an amalgam of roots music fused by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the American musical ethos; specifically those sounds that are merged from folk, country, rhythm & blues, rock & roll and other external influential styles....
    , Bluegrass
    Bluegrass music

    Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and is a sub-genre of country music. It has its own roots in Folk music of Ireland, Music of Scotland, Music of Wales and Folk Music of England traditional music....
    , &
  • Allternative Country Podcast
  • - website listing new, old artists recording Americana