Old-time music (aka old-timey music, mountain music) is perhaps the oldest form of North American traditional music other than Native American music, with roots in the folk musics of many countries, including England, Scotland, Ireland and countries in Africa. This musical form developed along with various North American folk dances, such as square dance, buck dance, and clogging. The genre also encompasses ballads and other types of folk songs. It is played on acoustic instruments, generally centering on a combination of fiddle and plucked string instruments (most often the guitar and, more generally in regions outside of the Northeast U.S. and Canada, banjo).
There are roughly six distinct regional styles of old-time across North America. The style of having a fiddle play the lead melody and a banjo play a rhythmic accompaniment is the most basic form of Appalachian old-time music, and is the instrumentation most Appalachian old-time musicians consider to be "classic." .
