iv) Conservative or traditionalist
While recording technology technically eliminated the need for those who specialized in conserving these songs in the purest sense of oral tradition, recordings such as those of Alan Lomax serve as almost a virtual traditionalist. Lomax did numerous field and roots recordings that serve as a direct link to the history of American music. While the impact of audio recordings should not be underestimated, they in the same sense should not be overestimated. The traditional and oral aspects of American music have been very important to its ability to evolve and spread. Just like those, "wise old men and women who specialize in conserving [oral tradition]," that Ong speaks of; similar figures were responsible for conserving the traditions of American song (41). Before the advent of recording technology, folk musicians took on the role of conservationalists of their tradition of song. While transcription techniques were widely available years before recording was possible, access and education strained the ability to use sheet music for many blues and folk musicians, thus they had to rely on a more oral tradition. Even today amidst the amazing recording technologies that exist musicians still continue to share with each other by way of oral tradition. From my own perspective as a casual musician, there are a number of songs that I have learned from friends where I only heard a recorded version months or years after I learned the song for the first time.
To further the relation between Ong's argument and American song, Ong states, "Of course oral cultures do not lack originality of their own kind…But narrators also introduce new elements into old stories" (42). An example of this tradition in American music takes us back again to Robert Johnson. One of Eric Clapton's classic recordings, "Crossroads", is an adapted version of Johnson's "Cross Road Blues". Just like a narrator might introduce, "new elements into old stories in an oral tradition", here Clapton adds new elements to an old song (42).

(v) Close to the human lifeworld
Ong suggests that, "oral cultures must conceptualize and verbalize all their knowledge with more or less close reference to the human lifeworld" (42). American song forms have definitely extended this part of Ong's argument, as there are few songs that simply list dates, facts, or statistics. Even songs that categorize or document certain events remain close to the human lifeworld. A good example of this would be Neil Young's "Cortez the Killer". "Cortez the Killer" is the story of Hernan Cortez's conquest of ?Central America?, and instead of lacing the story with compiled facts and events, Young writes in the "context of human action" (42):

Continue to page 4 of Ong and the Orality of American Song, 5