Bangladesh folk music has great variety, with songs being composed on the culture, festivals, views

of life, natural beauty, rivers and rural and riverine life. These songs are also about social inequality
and poverty, about the material world and the supernatural. Mystical songs have been composed
using the metaphors of rivers and boats.

Folk has come to occupy the lives of Bangladeshis almost more than any other genre of Bengali
music. Among the luminaries of the different folk traditions are Lalon Fokir, Shah Abdul
Karim, Radharaman Dutta, Hason Raja, Kursheed Nurali (Sherazzi), Ramesh Shil, Kari Amir Uddin Ahmed
and Abbas Uddin. Bangladesh folk songs are characterised by simple musical structure and words.

These are the different types of folk music in bangladesh:

 Sari: sung especially by boatmen. It is often known as workmen's song as well.

 Bhandari: Devotional music from the South (mainly Chittagong).
 Bhatiali: Music of fishermen and boatman, almost always tied by a common Ragas sung
solo.
 Lalon: best known of all folk songs and the most important subgenre of Baul songs

 Jhumur: traditional dance song form Bangladesh and eastern part of India.
 Bhawaiya: Song of bullock-cart drivers of the North (Rangpur).

Folk songs sung individually include Baul, Bhatiyali, Mushidi, Marfati, while songs sung in chorus
include Kavigan, Leto, Alkap and Gambhira. Some songs are regional in character, but others are
common to both Bangladesh and West Bengal. Similarly, some songs belong distinctively to one
religious community, Hindu or Muslim others cross religious boundaries. Some songs belong
exclusively to men, others to women, while some are sung by both men and women.