The trouble with troubadours
The Church can't have all the fun with their Gregorian Chants. So sometime before the eleventh century a type of secular music developed in southern France. Traveling poet/minstrels called troubadours went from castle to castle to sing songs and tell stories. Their job was to entertain the lords and ladies of the higher classes. The troubadour was a one man band without the band. He had no backup singers and did not share the stage for duets. He did use a string instrument like a lyre, lute, fiddle or sometimes the drums.
The troubadour songs were simple compared to church songs of that time. But troubadours' songs were based on the existing church modes so people would feel connected to the church while still being entertained. This type of secular songs tended to be faster in tempo then the church songs and used the common tongue of the day instead of Latin in the Gregorian chants.
Troubadours sang of war, chivalry, and love. Especially courtly love (non sexual), which was a very popular topic of the time. Songs were based on the story of a man pursuing a woman outside the bounds of marriage. The lover was portrayed as noble and passionate. However this annoyed the Medieval church. The Church was so annoyed that Pope Innocent III tried to get rid of the troubadours from southern and northern France, Span and northern Italy by starting the Albigensian or Cathar Crusade (1209-1229).
This crusade caused the troubadours to spread their music for the masses across all of Europe.
