As a folk singing form, its origins can be traced back to ancient times. The ballads to be described in this article mainly refer to the popular ballads with urban characteristics after the 20th century, with the rise of pop music. When it comes to this kind of ballads sung in cities, we must start from the 1940s, with Peter? The modern folk movement in the United States represented by Pete Seeger begins to be analyzed.

In the folk movement, there are two main sources of works, one is repertoire adapted from ancient traditional folk songs; the other is One is a creative ballad created according to the traditional folk ballad style. Regardless of the tendency, the singing retains the characteristics of traditional folk ballads (Ballad). The singing does not pay too much attention to vocal techniques, and mainly uses natural sounds as the basis. Mainly; because the melody of ballads is relatively stable, this determines the characteristics of ballad singing. At the same time, most of the themes of ballads are narrative themes, just like the tone of conversation between the two, which This also determines that the singing of folk songs cannot be loud. There is a concept that cannot be confused. Singing lightly does not mean laziness and weakness. The state of the voice should be positive, and the breath should be natural and smooth, but the tone does not need to be Excessive exaggeration. Just like speaking, exaggerated tone rarely appears in real life.

With the rise of the folk movement, folk music entered its peak period in the 1950s and 1960s, and also became a political protest The movement has been closely related. No matter how the theme changes, the singing method is always a low-pitched singing that narrates the story. However, starting from the 1950s, with the further development of commercialization of pop music, ballads have become more popular. At this time, the singing form was no longer limited to a single solo. Duets, trios, quartets and mixed vocal groups were born one after another. They retained the singing characteristics of shallow singing and low singing, and continued the colloquial narrative style. On this basis, they began to It emphasizes the harmonic effect of the melody, and also pays more attention to the melody of the song. Therefore, songs like "California Dreamin'" (California Dreamin'), "Scarborough Fair" (Scarborough Fair), etc. unfortunately began to be sung one after another.

If the folk movement is a conceptual fusion in the history of pop music (the production method of pop music based on folk elements), then folk singing is a "root-seeking" movement in the history of pop singing that connects the past and the future. A brief introduction The original characteristics of low singing are the roots of popular singing.

Representatives of folk singing: Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez (Joan Baez), Cat Stevens (Cat Stevens), "Simon & Garfunkel" (male duet), "The Mamas and Papas" (two male and two female mixed quartet) ,"