Broadside Ballads!

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Broadside Ballads!

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Dec. 17th, 2012 at 9:19 PM

I'm listening to a Radio National program about broadside ballads - fascinating stuff! In the days before newspapers they would be printed every time something dramatic happened, such as an execution. You could buy one for the cost of a loaf of bread. They were sensationalist, but had a moral.

I had heard about these ballads before, but I always enjoy learning more. Must see if there are any on YouTube...

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cmcmck

Dec. 17th, 2012 11:03 am (UTC)

I'm a historian by trade- a 17th century specialist and it's not always realised that newspapers are already in by the early part of that century- broadsides were published alongside them for many decades and can be seen as the sensationalist 'tabloid press' of their day.

Many have survived into folksong.

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sue_bursztynski

Dec. 18th, 2012 12:49 pm (UTC)

Definitely sensationalist. And yes, there were newspapers. Daniel Defoe was a journo. A propaganda journo, but still...

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gillpolack

Dec. 17th, 2012 12:32 pm (UTC)

A whole bunch of the words are online - we don't always have music ( a lot of them were printed with just a 'sung to the tune of').

I love broadside ballads and chapbooks and all kinds of narrative ephemera.

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sue_bursztynski

Dec. 18th, 2012 12:54 pm (UTC)

Isn't it amazing what you can find online? And were they the filk songs of their time? ;-) They would be "sung to the tune of.." things everybody knew the tune of.

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April 2013