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Before the media age, when senses were deluged with visual and audio images, traditional folksongs played an important role in the lives of people. Only in the second half of the twentieth century, after the advent of the portable transistor radio, did folksongs cease to play a central role in entertainment and celebration as well as in daily life. Among the Polish, folksongs were passed from generation to generation within a family and a community through daily life and special events. Folksongs differ from ballads in that folksongs are snippets of stories or even nonsense syllables that are put to music. Ballads have a strong story element with a plot and a refrain. Folksong topics could be about anything in the life or thoughts of a Pole.

The typical folksong structure is a four-line stanza, usually in trochaic or dactyllic meter, with frequent spondees (two long syllables) followed by a six-line stanza....