The Broadside Ballad as Newspaper @Ipkat @NeilWilkof

An interesting post from Neil Wilkof at the IPKat on The broadside ballad as newspaper: When the melody of “Greensleeves” met the latest public hanging in the City of London. Mr. Wilkof writes in part:

The broadside ballad brought together two developments. First was the long-standing oral tradition of the ballad, which was passed on from generation to generation. These ballads usually dealt with stories reflecting their provenance, such as medieval knights and damsels, ghosts, spurned love, and popular folk heroes (think Robin Hood). They were intended to appeal to the populace, with music and song as the platform by which to transmit their contents.