the.com/ballad
a song that turns heartbreak into a slow dance everyone secretly knows the words to
means A ballad is a slow, narrative song or poem, often romantic or sentimental, that tells a story or stirs deep feeling.
from From Old French 'balade,' a song meant for dancing, which traces back to Late Latin 'ballare,' to dance — a cousin of 'ballet' and 'ball' (the dancing kind). The word once meant a dance-song, but over centuries it drifted from the feet to the heart, until 'ballad' came to mean the story you sway to rather than spin to.
- medieval roots
- originally dance tunes, from Latin ballare, to dance
- power formula
- hair metal bands used them to top charts
- story spine
- folk ballads narrate murders, lovers, and doomed sailors
- lighter rule
- once required a raised flame, now glowing phones
barbara allen — english folk ballad from the 17th century about a woman who refuses a dying man's love, collected in child ballad no. 84
johnny cash at folsom — 1968 live album where cash performed 'folsom prison blues' and other ballads to inmates at folsom state prison