Talk:Ballad

Archived discussion

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• /Archive 1 – posts from 2002 to June 2006. topics include the lead section, a possible link to a Smithsonian site, and specific ballads to mention or not...—Turangalila (talk) 12:37, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

Worldwide view

The article does not reflect a worldwide (or "time-wide") view. The ballad originated in the Romance countries in the Middle Ages, as did the word itself (see e.g. the German wiki article). They are usually considered identical to the Swedish medieval "folkvisor" as well (see the Swedish wiki article), which in later centuries came to parallel the "broadsheet" phenomenon described in this article. --194.145.161.227 20:39, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

See also the Britannia Concise articles Ballad and Broadside Ballad. This is one of the (I guess few) topics where Wikipedia still lags far behind. --194.145.161.227 20:43, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

Modern usage (Ballad (music))

I don't think this article as it stands adequately addresses the use of the term ballad in contemporary musical contexts. The traditional sense of ballad persists among folk musicians, but in pop and especially jazz it has a totally different meaning: it denotes a love song, or a sentimental song in a personal tone, or a slow song in general. This is vaguely alluded to in the artlce at present but not defined in all its variety.

I've created a new article called Ballad (music) which endeavors to address this. I know the traditional definition usually means a song, and I'm not married to the name, but I think some clarification/elaboration was necessary, and I'm not even sure ballad should redirect here. I've added {{main}} tags for that & other things to this article for now.

The confusion is demonstrated, I think, by "What links here" and especially by the lists in the article under "Famous ballads", particularly "Modern". People seem totally unclear about the difference between "Traditional" and "Popular" definitions; the list as a whole is just a mess. What exactly does "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" have in common with "Joe Hill"? How about "Stardust" and "American Pie"? What is "November Rain" doing on both lists? What are "On Top of Spaghetti" or "Space Oddity" doing there at all?! I think the relevant WikiProjects, or just interested editors, should try to address the whole issue. —Turangalila (talk) 18:08, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

poem ballads

A little more on poem type ballads may have been appriciated, as a lot is tied up in other sections, and the actually poem bit is only a few lines. Just a thought...