@hikari @gsuberland Is not all true culture “folk”? National movements for culture are inherently artificial; culture primarily goes “national” through propaganda. Often that propaganda has basis in fact, but it is generally intentionally distorted and homogonised.

I think it’s really important to ask “why did these musical styles develop in these places?” and so often the answer really comes down to the fact that London is such a culturally diverse place where a bunch of (primarilly Afro-Carribbean) immigrants had set down roots - at the time these were really starting to spring up - 1-2 generations ago.

Why did musical history take the course that it did? Because the children of those Afro-Carribbean immigrants and of families that had lived in London since time immemorial grew up together, went to the same schools, befriended each other, and traded musical influences with each other, combined with the fact that music creation suddenly started getting a whole lot more accessible and there was a social safety net sufficiently functional to allow people to experiment.