I hear a band like the Grateful Dead and I immediately think of music’s general quality to transcend social and cultural boundaries and exist in a variety of different contexts. Through their music, The Grateful Dead in 1970 became a major influence to the countercultural movement that was still very prevelant in American Society. Although initially the band’s origins existed in folk music, the Grateful Dead effectively blended folk with the increasingly popular rock n roll sounds to captivate a new generation of listeners.

The band’s song “Casey Jones” is a perfect example of this heterogenous style of music which has long alluded classification…Is it folk? or is rock n roll? Well I feel it’s partially both, and more importantly that it could be more on than the other depending on the listener’s background. Folk enthusiasts will appreciate the melodic matching of vocals with instruments, or how the lively tune is contrasted by a narration of the realities and struggles of everyday life- all elements that trace back to African-American and European folk music of the early 19th century. However, the Grateful Dead is also undoubtedly a 20th century band, reflected by the electric instruments, powerful expressive changes in singing, pitch, and rythym, and the contemporary iconography-particualarly the drug references. 

When it comes to analyzing this song in the context of how it affects popular culture, I must say that I believe the Grateful Dead and other bands like it managed to change America by making popular what wasn’t popular to start, one of the more major occurrences of a significant “counterculture.” However, I would also contend that what they did was take music that was already common (not necessarily popular as we would define it in this class) and give it the necessary facelift to make it relevant to a 20th century audience.