Banjo

Rare card · No. 58816

The banjo is a stringed musical instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of mylar (BOPET), whereas earlier examples of banjos had membranes made of goat skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashioned by the "African diaspora" and had African antecedents. In the 19th century, interest in the instrument was piqued across the United Kingdom and United States by traveling members of highly popular traveling blackface minstrel shows, followed by mass production and mail-order sales, including instructional books. The inexpensive or home-made banjo remained part of rural folk culture, but five-string and four-string banjos also became popular for home parlour music entertainment, college music clubs, and early 20th century jazz bands. By the early 20th century, the banjo was most frequently associated with the folk, blues, cowboy, and country music genres. By mid-century, the...

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