Definition of "folk music" [folk music]

• Music originating among the common people of a nation or region and spread about or passed down orally, often with considerable variation. (noun)
• Contemporary music in the style of traditional folk music. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Milford spent a few weeks in Palo Alto last summer, visiting the trademark El Palo Alto tree on the banks of San Francisquito Creek and researching folk music from California's mission era."