Searching for silenced voices in Appalachian music

Music is extremely important in representations of place in the Appalachian Region of the United States, where ballads and banjo tunes become musical signposts in popular and academic culture to mark the region's Otherness. Embedded in the discourse about the region and its music are silences about groups of people that do not fit dominant expectations of authenticity or belonging, the Others within. This essay serves to highlight some historical contributions of these groups, the social processes that have silenced them, and directions for future research to amplify those voices.