ABSTRACT
To a twentieth-century American the street ballad carries overtones of other daily experiences besides those of sensational journalism. The song has much in common with the familiar boosting of consumer goods sung at us over radio and television: it is, in effect, a singing commercial. As a song exercise contrived for profit by one party for a second party, such a sold ballad has two collateral lines of descent in the modern marketplace. One is popular song, which sells directly whatever experience it offers in itself. The other is sung advertising, which is given away freely (insistently) to sell something else associated with the experience it provides.
