Common Songs of the Cultural Heritage of the United States: A Compilation of Songs That Most People “Know” and “Should Know”

Recently, there have been attempts to identify songs common to the heritage of the United States. Although researchers in previous investigations have studied songs that are common to specific geographical areas, this studys purpose was to determine which songs are familiar to U.S. citizens across several regions and also to uncover various epistemological definitions of what it means to “know” a song. By cross-referencing modern lists with the contents of two songbooks popular during the community song movements of the World Wars I and II, I sought to determine which songs were common across the eras studied. Also important to this study was finding out how many of the 42 songs listed in MENC's Get American Singing … Again! (1996) appeared in previous investigations and in either of the community song movement books. Results indicated that there is a disparity between the songs that Americans actually know and those that experts say they should be learning. Experts seem to be more in agreement with songbook editors of previous eras than with people who are currently learning and re-creating a new generation of common songs. Finally, 38% of the songs included on MENC's list were not found in any previous study or in either of the community songbooks, raising questions about their inclusion on a national list.