Whenever I’m talking to a person about the wonderful genre that is Volksmusik there is always that annoying question that pops up, “Isn’t that Polka Music?”. This question has a murky feel to myself a young woman growing up in a German-American family because not only is polka a dance but is also an umbrella used by non-German Americans for any music that sounds German, Austrian, or is played at a beir tent. The history of this dance name being used as an umbrella is shameful to the number of Musikanten who came to America to share their music only for it to be plastered with this label. Yet this umbrella has protected us from xenophobia and has united us with other cultures who share the same dance with Czech, Slovenian, and Polish peoples and also created and adapted to new genres of music. Even though it’s an ugly umbrella with a history of assimilation and exploitation behind it; we all have to acknowledge it’s there like Vroom in the Room.
So What Is Polka Music Really?
A Polka can exist in all genres of music all over that have been influenced by Eastern Europeans just like when Indian people were inspired to develop their own marching bands because they saw the English military and navy have their own brass and military bands. However, the Indian people's bands had wonderful and colorful uniforms which influenced a British band named The Beatles to come together to form...you know the lyrics...
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There are polkas written by Classical composers like Johan and Richard Strauss, African Americans used it as the foundation of Ragtime Music which became jazz, Mexicans created La Banda music that is heard in every Mexican Restaurant because of German Immigrants who were kicked to the curb because of Prohibition moved to Mexico to brew German Beers and taught Mexicans about their music. Without Volkmusik in America, there would be no Jazz, Country, Pop, Dixieland Jazz, Jodeling, or Rock. Even some songs in musicals are even polkas or have the polka's AABA format such as Shall We Dance, Be Our Guest, A Spoonful of Sugar.
The Vroom in the Room
However despite Volkmusik's influence on much of America's music genres; we still have to talk about why the term Polka despite it being in much of European folk music and being based on the Chezch word for dancing around the pole; has an ugliness tied to xenophobia at a time when Germans were considered like people from Central America today illegal immigrants even through two World Wars. Americans were afraid of singers and performers who sung or used their native dialects in their songs which is why many German and Austrian Americans formed their own communal music groups specific to a bar or brewery which is why polkas and ballads of German, Polish, or Slovenian-German descent mention either the name of the brewery or the name of the town the beer was being brewed such as Milwaukee Polka or Old Milwaukee.
If they ever performed outside of their community there would be riots and police-involved which is why when Prohibition his us hard; bands like the Six Fat Dutchmen and many others changed from traditional German attire and music to something more akin to the Swing Band style of jazz, however, I'm proud the Harrold Loeffelmacher kept playing his favorite instrument the tuba despite all these changes.
Even though Polka sounds like an inclusive label it's also like Country Music rife with exploitation by the record industry who for a long time had a history of xenophobia, elitism, and racism. Barn Dance Music or Beer Hall Music was once actual terms for German or Austrian American Folk Music and anti-Semitic and xenophobic people like Henry Ford and other wealthy men thought that this music was so damaging to youth in America that he wanted schools to start square dancing which unbeknownst to him has it's origin back to the Irish and German folk-dance tradition along with Riverdance and Schuhplattler. This is also how we got the myth of the jodeling, gun-slinging, and chap wearing Cowboys because it was the record industry assimilating jodeling into something American audiences could understand.
Even Polka music was exploited in the bubbly guise of the Larenwence Welk Show where it becomes even more stereotypical knowing that Larence used his German accent for show rather than admit he was not German or German American. It was an even bigger blow to local German and Austrian Folk groups in America who were replaced with corny song and dance numbers. Marv Herzog is also one of our most well-known victims of the Narm Charm the show presented around folk musicians and he is from Frankenmuth, MI! If only I had a time machine...
Like This Number Was A Swell Idea...
I'm sorry to say this but Time Machines only exist in science fiction; however, the only thing I can do is help change people's minds with the knowledge and experiences with the knowledge I'm learning about Volksmusik and it's development in America which is why the history of xenophobia and assimilation targeted towards German and Irish immigrants must not be ignored in our textbooks along with how damaging and painful Prohibition was not only to workers, our economy, cities, and drinking culture but also to a culture of people who had traditions and wonderful music and literature to share with the world.
Calling all Volksmusik Polka Music is like saying, "All penguins are the same" when really all Penguins are different and come from different countries. Volksmusik means Peoples Music for a reason; because German's, Swiss, Tirolan's, Steirlander's, Laventaller's, Egerlander's, and Slovenian's want to share their music with you and it does not belong to one person it should be for all people to hear and enjoy it.
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