169-420: A roots revival ( folk revival ) is a trend which includes young performers popularizing the traditional musical styles of their ancestors. Often, roots revivals include an addition of newly composed songs with socially and politically aware lyrics, as well as a general modernization of the folk sound. The term roots revival is vague, and may not always refer to identical events. Characteristics associated with
338-504: A Rickenbacker twelve-string guitar on the Beatles' mid-1960s recordings. This relatively clean, jangly sound—without distortion or other guitar effects —became a cornerstone of folk rock instrumentation and was used in many American folk rock records made during 1965 and 1966. We were a group, but not professional musicians. I had to de-complicate my music and get it simpler and simpler, so that we could play it and make it sound like
507-528: A Rolling Stone ", " For What It's Worth ", and " Let's Live for Today ". During the 1950s and early 1960s in the UK, a parallel folk revival referred to as the second British folk revival , was led by folk singers Ewan MacColl and Bert Lloyd . Both viewed British folk music as a vehicle for leftist political concepts and an antidote to the American-dominated popular music of the time. However, it
676-402: A Roots revival until the late 1990s, when performers like Morten Alfred Høirup gained a widespread following in the country. Dutch music : The late 1960s saw a revival of Dutch folk music, led by performers like Gerard van Maasakkers ; popularity was limited, and soon ended, though region of Friesland has maintained a strong traditional music scene. Egyptian music : The city of Cairo
845-518: A broad range of rhythms, instruments, and vocal stylings were incorporated into disparate popular genres. The movement became global in the 1960s and 1970s. In most cases, the folk songs being revived were not quite extinct, though some had not been played for years or were moribund; such cases include the Celtic songs of Cornwall and the Isle of Man , for example. In other cases, such as Cameroon and
1014-514: A category including Dando Shaft , Amazing Blondel , and Jack the Lad , an offshoot of northern progressive folk group Lindisfarne , who were one of the most successful UK bands of the early 1970s. Examples of bands that remained firmly on the border between progressive folk and progressive rock were the short lived (but later reunited) Comus and, more successfully, Renaissance , who combined folk and rock with elements of classical music. Folk metal
1183-530: A creative medium and to the wealth of musical culture to be found within the United States. Of particular importance to the development of folk rock by the British Invasion were the subtle folk influences evident in such Beatles' compositions as " I'll Be Back ", " Things We Said Today ", and " I'm a Loser ", with the latter song being directly inspired by folk singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. In
1352-506: A derivative of the funeral genre of tchinkoumé Cambodian music : The early 1960s saw a revival of classical music and dance, inspired by Princess Norodom Buppha Devi and led by Sinn Sisamouth , though the rise of the Khmer Rouge largely ended this trend. Cameroonian music : Beginning with bikutsi in the 1950s and continuing with makossa into the end of the 20th century, Cameroon's popularized folk musics have become among
1521-587: A further sharp decline in traditional music. British folk song might have become a purely academic interest had it not been for a second wave of revival with a very different emphasis. The second revival in Britain followed a similar movement in America, to which it was connected by individuals such as Alan Lomax , who had moved to Britain in the era of McCarthyism and who worked in England and Scotland. Unlike
1690-549: A living by playing to a small but committed audience. Some clubs developed policies around their musical preferences and which artists they would book. These ranged from "the rural idyll" through "anything which entertains" to "stick to your own culture," the latter meaning "if you're British don't copy American songs and styles." Artists such as Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger refused to confine themselves to rural or even early industrial songs, but wrote or brought burning political issues into their repertoire. Other artists who built
1859-445: A major roots revival that brought highlife to international audiences. Greek music : The late 1960s and early 1970s coup repressed rembétika , a style which had developed earlier in the century. This oppression ironically created a major boom in popularity for the genre, which became associated with political resistance and rebellion. Singer-songwriters like Dionysis Savvopoulos also became wildly popular, and were seen as voices of
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#17327733036932028-622: A more charitable view of the 'morally dubious' elements of traditional folk than the first revival, with Lloyd recording an entire album of erotic folk songs, The Bird in the Bush (1966). The expansion of the revival scene has been attributed to the short-lived British skiffle craze of 1956–58. Spearheaded by Lonnie Donegan ’s hit " Rock Island Line " (1956) it dovetailed with the growth of café youth culture, where skiffle bands with acoustic guitars, and improvised instruments such as washboards and tea chest bass, played to teenage audiences. Beside
2197-656: A musical tradition that was rural in origin, oral in transmission and communal in nature. In Scotland collectors included the Reverend James Duncan (1848–1917) and Gavin Greig (1856–1914), and in Wales, Nicholas Bennett (1823–99). There was a strong nationalist element in the motivation for collecting folk song. As part of a general mood of growing nationalism in the period before the First World War ,
2366-652: A number of early collections of printed material, including those published by John Playford as The English Dancing Master (1651), the private collections of Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) and the Roxburghe Ballads collected by Robert Harley , 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer (1661–1724). In the 18th century there were increasing numbers of such collections, including Thomas D'Urfey 's Wit and Mirth: or, Pills to Purge Melancholy (1719–20) and Bishop Thomas Percy 's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765). The last of these also contained some oral material and by
2535-636: A number of factors, including the Beatles' coupling of folk derived chord progressions and beat music, the Byrds' rock adaptation of "Mr. Tambourine Man" (which Dylan had heard at a Byrds' rehearsal in late 1964), and the Animals hit cover of "The House of the Rising Sun". Bringing It All Back Home was released on 22 March 1965, peaking at number 6 on the Billboard Top LPs chart and #1 on
2704-615: A number of traditions, including Ciccio Busacca 's fusions of Sicilian folk styles, central Italy's jazzy modern folk, pioneered by Canzoniere del Lazio , the re-appearance of the lira through the work of Re Niliu , the popularization of diverse genres of northern Italian music and some of the work of world-famous tenor Enrico Caruso , who revitalized Naples' canzone napoletana tradition. In contrast to many other countries', Italy's roots revival has resulted in very little mainstream success. Japanese music : Though elements of traditional Japanese music can be found in some rock and pop from
2873-423: A popular music group. Dylan's material would provide much of the original grist for the folk rock mill, not only in the U.S. but in the UK as well, with many pop and rock acts covering his material in a style reminiscent of the Byrds. Their reworking of "Mr. Tambourine Man", along with the Animals ' rock interpretation of " The House of the Rising Sun " (itself based on Dylan's earlier cover), helped to give Dylan
3042-413: A popular thing. Whenever you have a format like that, it sounds folky, because it's not glitzed over with anything. We only had acoustic and electric guitars, so every chance we got, we'd try to add some variety. The only way you could get variety was to go to a harmonica during this song, or get an acoustic in this space; get different moods that way. —Ron Elliott of The Beau Brummels on the origins of
3211-481: A range of influences including medieval and eastern music into their compositions. Some of this, particularly the Incredible String Band, has been seen as developing into the further subgenre of psych or psychedelic folk and had a considerable impact on progressive and psychedelic rock . There was a brief flowering of British progressive folk in the late 1960s and early 1970s, with groups such as
3380-659: A rebuke to the folk purists who had rejected his new electric music. Throughout 1965 and 1966, hit singles like "Subterranean Homesick Blues", "Like a Rolling Stone", "Positively 4th Street", and " I Want You " among others, along with the Bringing It All Back Home , Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde albums, proved to be hugely influential on the development and popularity of folk rock. Although Dylan's move away from acoustic folk music served to outrage and alienate much of his original fanbase, his new folk rock sound gained him legions of new fans during
3549-694: A reputation performing traditional songs in British clubs included English singers the Copper Family , The Watersons , the Ian Campbell Folk Group , Shirley Collins and Martin Carthy , and from Scotland Alex Campbell , Jean Redpath , Hamish Imlach , and Dick Gaughan and groups such as The Gaugers and The Corries . A significant factor in the early growth of the revival was the output of Topic Records , founded as an offshoot of
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#17327733036933718-409: A result, he had been thinking of a way in which to introduce folk styled acoustic guitars and socially conscious lyrics into pop music for several years prior to his 1965 breakthrough as a recording artist. By January 1966, he had recorded the self-penned hit " Sunshine Superman " with a full electric backing band. Other bands and solo artists who were blurring the boundaries between folk and rock in
3887-408: A revival and revitalization of Russian folk songs, a trend which continued in ensuing decades. Sami music : The Sami , an indigenous people found in central and northern Scandinavia, northern Finland and northwestern Russia, have a tradition of folk songs called joiks , which have been popularized by the likes of Mari Boine , who remains a legend in the field. Slovenian music : in the 1950s,
4056-404: A revival of Finnish opera and other more traditional styles. French music : Though many of France's regional styles have seen popularization, the most vibrant scene is undoubtedly the traditional music of Brittany . The region boasts a uniquely Celtic heritage, which has been emphasized by the revival since its beginnings in the early 1970s, led by Alan Stivell . Corsican music has also seen
4225-785: A revival of ancient Jewish music. The songs that they and their followers composed constitute a canonical body of folk music called "Songs of the Land of Israel." These songs are still widely performed today by popular artists. Another example of roots revival in Israel is the preservation of regional Jewish musical styles. The music of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish communities has morphed into an eclectic new style called "Muzika Mizrahit" . Folksongs in Yiddish and Ladino have been revived and recorded by artists like Chava Alberstein and Yehoram Gaon . Yair Dalal incorporates stylistic elements of
4394-562: A revival, though with little popular success, concurrent with the rise of Corsican nationalism in the 1970s. In the same way Occitan music, has also seen a revival with Occitan nationalism and reviviscence of occitan speaking in 60's (politic crisis with Gaullists to a clash with French linguistic imperialism and conservative politics) See also the Québécois under Canadian music. Galician music : Similar to other Celtic nations, traditional Galician gaita (bagpipe) can now be heard all over
4563-402: A roots revival include: With such a vague and variable definition, roots revival could be seen as referring to the creation of any kind of pop music industry, though there are countries with well-developed pop traditions that have not had a period referred to as a roots revival (such as Jamaica, India, Cuba, and Kenya). For example, homogenized pop has long had its fans in most every country in
4732-550: A song which had been recorded by the folk duo Simon & Garfunkel in 1964 and first released on their album Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. . The reissued single rose to number 1 on the Billboard pop chart in late 1965, became a hit around the world, and set the duo on one of the most successful careers in pop and rock music. Simon and Garfunkel have been described as "folk-rock's greatest duo, and one whose fame and influence would persist well beyond folk-rock's heyday." One of
4901-476: A sub-culture of folk clubs and folk festivals as well as influential subgenres including progressive folk music and British folk rock . Social and cultural changes in British society in the early modern era, often seen as creating greater divisions between different social groups, led from the mid-17th century to the beginnings of a process of rediscovery of many aspects of popular culture, including festivals , folklore , dance and folk song . This led to
5070-567: A traditional element in their music, including Jansch and Renbourn who, with Jacqui McShee , Danny Thompson , and Terry Cox , formed Pentangle in 1967. Others totally abandoned the traditional element and in this area particularly important were the Scottish artists Donovan (who was most influenced by emerging progressive folk musicians in America like Bob Dylan ) and the Incredible String Band , who from 1967 incorporated
5239-437: A traditional style, and is played on a combination of traditional and rock instruments. This incorporation of traditional British folk music influences gives British folk rock its distinctly British character and flavour. It evolved out of the psychedelia -influenced folk rock of British acts such as Donovan, the Incredible String Band , and Tyrannosaurus Rex , but was also heavily influenced by such American folk rock bands as
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5408-563: Is the BibleCode Sundays . Celtic rock is also popular in Spain where bands such as Celtas Cortos have had a large following since the early 1990s. Medieval folk rock developed as a subgenre of electric folk from about 1970 as performers, particularly in England, Germany and Brittany, adopted medieval and renaissance music as a basis for their music, in contrast to the early modern and nineteenth century ballads that dominated
5577-604: Is a fusion genre of heavy metal music and traditional folk music that developed in Europe during the 1990s. It is characterised by the widespread use of folk instruments and, to a lesser extent, traditional singing styles (for example, Dutch Heidevolk , Danish Sylvatica and Spanish Stone of Erech). It also sometimes features soft instrumentation influenced by folk rock. The earliest folk metal bands were Skyclad from England, Cruachan from Ireland and Mago de Oz from Spain. Skyclad's debut album The Wayward Sons of Mother Earth
5746-527: Is the most important center for Egyptian music, which includes a variety of popularized folk styles, including northern sawahii and southern saiyidi . Finnish music : Finland's folk styles include a variety of national genres and ballads, while the traditional rhyming sleigh songs rekilaulu have become an integral part of many pop singers. In 1967, the Savonlinna Opera Festival , the first of several similar festivals, contributed to
5915-490: The 1967 Detroit riot . He would rise to top the charts in the 1970s with a number of his folk-rock recordings such as " Sundown " and " Carefree Highway " and eventually become known as a folk-rock legend. Some artists who originally produced with a harder edged rock sound found the ability to communicate more easily and felt more genuine in this method of delivery. In this category was Cat Stevens , who began in London much like
6084-606: The Albion Band . It was rapidly adopted and developed in the surrounding Celtic cultures of Brittany , where it was pioneered by Alan Stivell and bands such as Malicorne ; in Ireland by groups such as Horslips ; and also in Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man and Cornwall , to produce Celtic rock and its derivatives. It has been influential in those parts of the world with close cultural connections to Britain, such as
6253-644: The Bill Monroe bluegrass standard " Blue Moon of Kentucky "; Buddy Holly 's self-penned material, which strongly influenced both Dylan and the Byrds; Ritchie Valens ' recording of the Mexican folk song " La Bamba "; Lloyd Price 's rock 'n' roll adaptation of the African-American folk song " Stagger Lee " (originally recorded by Mississippi John Hurt in 1928); Jimmie Rodgers ' rock 'n' roll flavored renditions of traditional folk songs; and
6422-583: The Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and stayed there for three weeks, selling over a million copies in just five weeks in the U.S. The band's arrangement of "The House of the Rising Sun", which transmuted the song from an acoustic folk lament to a full-bore electric rock song, would go on to influence many folk rock acts but none more so than Dylan himself, who cited it as a key factor in his decision to record and perform with an electric rock band in 1965. The Searchers were influential in popularizing
6591-507: The Board of Education in 1906 officially sanctioned the teaching of folk songs in schools. One of the major effects of the folk song revival was the creation of a distinctive English form of classical music , known as the English "national" or "pastoral" school. Sharp, among others, promoted the revival of English folk music as a response to the commonly held view that English art music since
6760-433: The Celtic rock movement, medieval music was focused on by bands like Ripaille from 1977 and Saga de Ragnar Lodbrock from 1979. However, by the end of the 1970s almost all of these performers had either disbanded or moved, like Gentle Giant and Gryphon, into the developing area of progressive rock . In the 1990s, as part of the wider resurgence of folk music in general, new medieval folk rock acts began to appear, including
6929-595: The Dominican Republic , no revival was necessary as the music remained common, and was merely popularized and adapted for mainstream audiences at home and abroad. Algerian music : Beginning as early as 1964, gaining steam in the 1970s and continuing through the 1980s, a mainstream raï revival occurred, and pop-raï stars like Khaled and Chaba Fadela gained worldwide audiences; the same period saw similar trends occur among Kabyle musicians such as Idir , Ferhat and Lounis Ait Menguellet , who popularized
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7098-657: The Garifunas , an Afro-Caribbean people found throughout Central America, began turning to their native punta sound and creating popular styles like punta rock , which found an audience across the area. Pen Cayetano was the most important figure in this scene. German music : Following the 1968 student revolution in West Germany, singer-songwriters playing a kind of expressive, melancholy music with traditional influences became popular. Due to governmental interference, East Germany did not see much of this influence until
7267-462: The Harvard professor Francis James Child (1825–96), compiler of The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (1882–92), Sabine Baring-Gould (1834–1924), Frank Kidson (1855–1926), Lucy Broadwood (1858–1939), and Anne Gilchrist (1863–1954). The Folk Song Society was founded in 1898 to promote this new endeavour. A major figure in this movement was Cecil Sharp who was the most influential on
7436-674: The Newport Folk Festival on 25 July 1965, where he was backed by an electric band, was also a pivotal moment in the development of the genre. During the late 1960s in Britain and Europe, a distinct, eclectic British folk rock style was created by Pentangle , Fairport Convention and Alan Stivell . Inspired by British psychedelic folk and the North American style of folk rock, British folk rock bands began to incorporate elements of traditional British folk music into their repertoire, leading to other variants, including
7605-538: The Ritchie Blackmore project Blackmore's Night , German bands such as In Extremo , Subway to Sally or Schandmaul and English bands like Circulus . In Britain the tendency to electrify brought several progressive folk acts into rock. This includes the acoustic duo Tyrannosaurus Rex, who became the electric combo T. Rex . Others, probably influenced by the electric folk pioneered by Fairport Convention from 1969, moved towards more traditional material,
7774-559: The Third Ear Band and Quintessence following the eastern Indian musical and more abstract work by group such as Comus , Dando Shaft , The Trees , Spirogyra , Forest , and Jan Dukes De Grey , but commercial success was elusive for these bands and most had broken off, or moved in very different directions, by about 1973. Perhaps the finest individual work in the genre was from early 1970s artists such as Nick Drake , Tim Buckley and John Martyn , but these can also be considered
7943-511: The UK Album Chart . The album's blend of rhythm and blues -derived rock and abstract, poetic lyrics was immediately influential in demonstrating that intelligent lyrical content could be wedded with rock 'n' roll. The songs on the album saw Dylan leaving folk music far behind. Even with this folkier, acoustic material, Dylan's biting, apocalyptical, and often humorous lyrics went far beyond those of contemporary folk music, particularly
8112-525: The dainų šventės , but did not allow for much lyrical or musical innovation, and kept all songwriters from experimenting with politically aware and dissident lyrics. An active cultural rebellion occurred in the 1960s, based around a series of national music festivals and concerts. Malian music : Cuban music had become extremely popular in Mali by the 1960s, and little folk music could compete. The country's second president, however, Moussa Traoré , encouraged
8281-484: The pansori , nongak and sanjo styles. Latvian music : Its traditional long suppressed or appropriated by the Soviet Union , Latvia's kokles (an instrument similar to a box zither ) was revived and popularised in the 1970s, led by traditional suiti kokle player Jānis Poriķis and ethnomusicologist Valdis Muktupāvels . Lithuanian music : The Soviet Union had sponsored some music festivals, such as
8450-420: The 1880s and 1890s. Similarly, John McEwen 's Pibroch (1889), Border Ballads (1908) and Solway Symphony (1911) incorporated traditional Scottish folk melodies. The first revival has been criticized, particularly by David Harker, as having a romanticized view of agricultural society, of ignoring urban and industrial forms of music such as work songs and those performed in music hall, and of bowdlerising
8619-525: The 18th century publications included Playford's Original Scotch Tunes (1700), Margaret Sinkler's Music Book (1710), James Watson's Choice Collection of Comic and Serious Scots Poems both Ancient and Modern (1711), William Thomson 's Orpheus caledonius: or, A collection of Scots songs (1733), James Oswald 's The Caledonian Pocket Companion (1751), and David Herd 's Ancient and modern Scottish songs, heroic ballads, etc.: collected from memory, tradition and ancient authors (1776). These were drawn on for
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#17327733036938788-573: The 1920s and 1930s, which had been reissued by Folkways Records ; Harry Smith 's Anthology of American Folk Music was particularly influential. While this urban folk revival flourished in many cities, New York City, with its burgeoning Greenwich Village coffeehouse scene and population of topical folk singers, was widely regarded as the centre of the movement. Out of this fertile environment came such folk-protest luminaries as Bob Dylan, Tom Paxton , Phil Ochs , and Peter, Paul and Mary , many of whom would transition into folk rock performers as
8957-413: The 1940s this particular tendency among composers had begun to subside and other fusions would be more significant in the second folk revival. Similar developments could be seen in Scotland in the work of Sir Alexander Mackenzie , who celebrated his native Scotland in three Scottish Rhapsodies for orchestra (1880–81, 1911), and in various concerted works for piano or violin and orchestra composed during
9126-532: The 1960s American folk rock scene, Canada has seen its own distinctive revival of styles. This includes the late 1970s scene in Maritime Canada , which glorified the area's Celtic heritage and was led by regional legends Figgy Duff and Stan Rogers , as well as the mid-1960s Quebecois revival led by Gilles Vigneault . There were also revivals of Acadian, Inuit and other folk styles. In the 1950s and 1960s dedicated folk music collectors spread out across
9295-530: The 1960s and 1970s, José Afonso led a return to more traditionally styled fado music, which later evolved into a number of new song forms that incorporated socio-political lyrics and foreign influences. Australian music : Beginning in the 1980s, Australian Aborigines began turning to their native styles of folk music, which were updated, creating popular bands and styles like Aboriginal rock . Canadian music : Though some artists, like The Band , Neil Young and Joni Mitchell , had been integral parts of
9464-450: The 1960s progressed. The vast majority of the urban folk revivalists shared a disdain for the values of mainstream American mass culture and led many folk singers to begin composing their own "protest" material. The influence of this folk-protest movement would later manifest itself in the sociopolitical lyrics and mildly anti-establishment sentiments of many folk rock songs, including hit singles such as " Eve of Destruction ", " Like
9633-420: The 1960s, Cuban music had seen international success in the form of pop- mambo , chachacha and other genres, and many artists were disillusioned with these styles, which were seen as watered-down. A vanguard of singer-songwriters like Silvio Rodríguez and Pablo Milanés arose, composing politically aware songs in a style that came to be called Nueva Trova . Dominican music : Merengue had been popular in
9802-475: The 1970s saw the creation of Chinese rock and Cantopop (in Hong Kong), both of which made some use of native folk styles, especially in vocal techniques. The leader of Chinese rock is undoubtedly Cui Jian . Ivorian music : Ernesto Djédjé 's ziglibithy style incorporates a number of folk genres from across Côte d'Ivoire, a diverse country with hundred of ethnic groups; Djédjé's most immediate influence
9971-592: The 1970s, Celtic rock held close to its folk roots, drawing heavily on traditional Celtic fiddle , pipe , and harp tunes, as well as traditional vocal styles, but making use of rock band levels of amplification and percussion. In the 1980s and beyond, Celtic rock was perpetuated by bands such as the Pogues , the Waterboys , Runrig , Black 47 , and the Prodigals . A more recent folk rock band based in England
10140-399: The 1970s, Gambian musicians were mostly playing popular merengue or other styles. A visit by pop band The Super Eagles to London to record saw a change, as they were encouraged to continue their practice of Gambian folk. The band became known as Ifang Bondi , and their music was called Afro-Manding blues . Garifuna music : Starting in the 1970s and continuing into the following decades,
10309-603: The 1970s, the country folk subgenre has been perpetuated by artists including John Prine , Nanci Griffith , Kathy Mattea , Mary Chapin Carpenter , and Iris DeMent . A subgenre of folk rock that combines traditional Celtic instrumentation with rock rhythms, often influenced by a wide variety of pop and rock music styles. It emerged from the electric folk music of the late 1960s and was pioneered by bands such as Horslips , who blended Gaelic mythology , traditional Irish music and rock. The British singer-songwriter Donovan
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#173277330369310478-412: The 1990s, often children of major figures in the second revival. The arrival and sometimes mainstream success of acts such as Kate Rusby , Nancy Kerr , Kathryn Tickell , Spiers and Boden , Seth Lakeman , Eliza Carthy , Runrig and Capercaillie , all largely concerned with acoustic performance of traditional material, marked a radical turnaround in the fortunes of the tradition. This was reflected in
10647-463: The 1990s. It was not until the early 2000s when the genre exploded into prominence, particularly in Finland with the efforts of such groups as Finntroll , Ensiferum , Korpiklaani , Turisas , and Moonsorrow . The music of folk metal is characterised by its diversity with bands known to perform different styles of both heavy metal music and folk music. A large variety of folk instruments are used in
10816-761: The American and British charts. In particular, the Byrds' influence can be discerned in mid-1960s recordings by acts such as the Lovin' Spoonful, Barry McGuire , the Mamas & the Papas, Simon & Garfunkel , Jefferson Airplane , the Turtles , We Five , Love , and Sonny & Cher . It was during the rehearsals at World Pacific that the band began to develop the blend of folk music and Beatles-style pop that would characterize their sound. However, this hybrid
10985-463: The Atlantic. In mid-1965, folk singer-songwriter Donovan was also experimenting with adding electrified instrumentation to some of his folk and blues-styled material, as evidenced by songs such as " You're Gonna Need Somebody on Your Bond " and "Sunny Goodge Street". In spite of his folky persona and repertoire, Donovan himself had always considered himself a pop star, rather than a folk singer. As
11154-489: The Ballads and Blues Club in 1953. These clubs usually met in urban locations, but the songs sung in them often harked back to a rural pre-industrial past. In many ways this was the adoption of abandoned popular music by the middle classes. By the mid-1960s there were probably over 300 folk clubs in Britain, providing an important circuit for acts that performed traditional songs and tunes acoustically, where some could sustain
11323-614: The Beatles' impact on American popular culture effectively sounded the death knell for the American folk music revival . In addition to The Beatles, the two British groups that were arguably the most influential on the development of folk rock were the Animals and the Searchers . The Animals released a rock interpretation of the traditional folk song " The House of the Rising Sun " in the U.S. in August 1964. The song reached number 1 on
11492-481: The Beatles' music became even more explicit during 1965, with the release of " You've Got to Hide Your Love Away ", a folk-derived song with introspective lyrics, again influenced by Dylan. Although the Beatles themselves utilized folk as just one of many styles evident in their music, the underlying folk influences in a number of their songs would prove to be important to folk rock musicians attempting to blend their own folk influences with beat music . The effect that
11661-503: The Byrds did in the United States but toned down the sound more frequently with acoustic instruments. He performed songs that contained concern for the environment, war, and the future of the world in general. The Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell won many Grammy Awards with her folk rock/pop songs. British folk rock developed in Britain during the mid to late 1960s by the bands Fairport Convention , and Pentangle . It uses traditional British music and self-penned compositions in
11830-470: The Byrds entered Columbia Studios in Hollywood to record his song "Mr. Tambourine Man", Bob Dylan completed the recording sessions for his fifth album, Bringing It All Back Home . Of the eleven tracks on the album, seven featured Dylan backed by a full electric rock band, in stark contrast to his earlier acoustic folk albums. Dylan's decision to record with an electric backing band had been influenced by
11999-567: The Byrds, Love , and Buffalo Springfield. British folk rock was at its most significant and popular during the late 1960s and 1970s, when, in addition to Fairport and Pentangle, it was taken up by groups such as Steeleye Span and the Albion Band . Steeleye Span, founded by Fairport Convention bass player Ashley Hutchings , was made up of traditionalist folk musicians who wished to incorporate electrical amplification, and later overt rock elements, into their music. This, in turn, spawned
12168-472: The Dominican Republic for decades since evolving out of confusing folk origins, but did not truly become a form of pop music until the early 1960s, when legends like Johnny Ventura brought the music to new audiences at home and abroad. Spanish music was incorporated into Spanish Baroque music in the harpsichord works of Soler. Later composers such as Albeniz, Falla, Rodrigo and Giuliani used
12337-515: The Greek nation. Music of Israel : Early Zionist settlers in Palestine, as far back as the 1880s, sought to create a new mode of Jewish folk music that was based on Biblical musical modes that had long since been abandoned. These composers, who included Matityahu Shelem, Yedidia Admon, and many others, drew on Yemenite, Arabic and other antique sources to create a unique style that they considered
12506-501: The Lovin' Spoonful as new folk-rock acts. Dylan also contributed to the creation of the genre, with his recordings utilizing rock instrumentation on the albums Bringing It All Back Home , Highway 61 Revisited , and Blonde on Blonde . In a broader sense, folk rock encompasses similarly inspired musical genres and movements in different regions of the world. Folk rock may lean more towards either folk or rock in instrumentation, playing and vocal style, and choice of material. While
12675-484: The Peasantry of England (1846). These developments, perhaps combined with changes in the nature of British identity, led to a much more intensive and academic attempt to record what was seen as a vanishing tradition, now usually referred to as the first English or British folk revival. The first British revival concentrated on transcribing, and later recording, songs by remaining performers. An important catalyst for
12844-688: The U.S. folk community. The term "folk rock" was initially used in the U.S. music press in June 1965 to describe the Byrds' music. The commercial success of the Byrds' cover version of Dylan's " Mr. Tambourine Man " and their debut album of the same name , along with Dylan's own recordings with rock instrumentation—on the albums Bringing It All Back Home (1965), Highway 61 Revisited (1965), and Blonde on Blonde (1966)—encouraged other folk acts, such as Simon & Garfunkel , to use electric backing on their records and new groups, such as Buffalo Springfield , to form. Dylan's controversial appearance at
13013-489: The U.S. music charts. These groups were all heavily influenced by American rock 'n' roll , blues , and R&B —musical genres they had been introduced to via homegrown British rock 'n' roll singers, imported American records , and the music of the skiffle craze. These UK groups, known collectively as the British Invasion , reintroduced American youth culture to the broad potential of rock and pop music as
13182-462: The U.S. singles chart. The high-profile success of the Beau Brummels' music was important in demonstrating that a hybrid of folk and rock could potentially be translated into mainstream commercial success. Pre-dating the Beau Brummels' commercial breakthrough by almost two years, singer-songwriter Jackie DeShannon 's April 1963 single " Needles and Pins " marked, according to Unterberger,
13351-495: The UK, the folk group the Springfields (featuring Dusty Springfield ) had been releasing folk-oriented material featuring full band arrangements since the early 1960s, including renditions of " Lonesome Traveler ", " Allentown Jail ", and " Silver Threads and Golden Needles ". Although these records owed more to orchestral pop than rock, they were nonetheless influential on up-and-coming folk rock musicians on both sides of
13520-454: The US and Canada, and gave rise to the subgenre of medieval folk rock and the fusion genres of folk punk and folk metal . By the 1980s the genre was in steep decline in popularity, but has survived and revived in significance as part of a more general folk resurgence since the 1990s. While in Scotland the circuit of ceilidhs and festivals helped prop up traditional music, from the late 1970s
13689-473: The United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music revival . Performers such as Bob Dylan and the Byrds —several of whose members had earlier played in folk ensembles—attempted to blend the sounds of rock with their pre-existing folk repertoire, adopting the use of electric instrumentation and drums in a way previously discouraged in
13858-556: The Weavers , whose mainstream popularity set the stage for the folk revival of the 1950s and early 1960s and also served to bridge the gap between folk, popular music, and topical song . The Weavers' sound and repertoire of traditional folk material and topical songs directly inspired the Kingston Trio , a three-piece folk group who came to prominence in 1958 with their hit recording of " Tom Dooley ". The Kingston Trio provided
14027-613: The Whale , Mumford & Sons , Johnny Flynn and that in Scotland, centred on Glasgow and with a more Celtic tinge, with artists such as Findlay Napier and the Bar Room Mountaineers and Pearl and the Puppets . Folk rock Folk rock is a fusion genre of rock music with heavy influences from pop , English and American folk music . It typically combines elements of folk and rock music together, it arose in
14196-493: The Workers' Music Association in 1939. From about 1950 Ewan MacColl and A. L. Lloyd became heavily involved, producing several records of traditional music. In 1960 the label became independent and was financially secure after the release of The Iron Muse in 1963. In the 1970s Topic released a series of albums by ground-breaking artists including Nic Jones , Dick Gaughan , The Battlefield Band , as well as major figures on
14365-454: The approach pursued by MacColl/Seeger and their adherents The Critics Group saw their view of the industrialised working class and "urban" songs in general as romantic as Sharp had been about agricultural workers. Since most folk clubs were located in cities and towns, their audiences were a mix of mainly urban workers, professionals, intellectuals, students, activists and visitors. Few were rural workers, but those who could be said to belong to
14534-468: The attendance at, and numbers of, folk clubs began to decrease, probably as new musical and social trends, including punk rock , new wave and electronic music , began to dominate. Although many acts such as Martin Carthy and the Watersons continued to perform successfully, there were very few significant new acts pursuing traditional forms in the 1980s. This all began to change with a new generation in
14703-438: The band's folk-flavored sound Although folk rock mainly grew out of a mix of American folk revival and British Invasion influences, there were also a few examples of proto-folk rock that were important in the development of the genre. Of these secondary influences, Unterberger has cited the self-penned, folk-influenced material of San Francisco's the Beau Brummels as arguably the most important. Despite their Beatlesque image,
14872-584: The band's sound in June 1965, at roughly the same time as "Mr. Tambourine Man" peaked at number 1 on the Billboard chart. Within three months it had become the first folk rock smash hit, reaching number 1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart . The single's success initiated the folk rock boom of 1965 and 1966, during which a profusion of Byrds-influenced acts flooded
15041-467: The band's use of minor chords , haunting harmonies, and folky acoustic guitar playing—as heard on their debut single " Laugh, Laugh "—was stylistically very similar to the later folk rock of the Byrds. Released in December 1964, "Laugh, Laugh" peaked at number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1965, while its similarly folk-flavored follow-up, " Just a Little ", did even better, reaching number 8 on
15210-476: The burgeoning folk rock scene and in establishing Dylan as a bona fide rock star, rather than a folksinger. "Like a Rolling Stone" managed to reach the Top 5 on both sides of the Atlantic. Five days after the release of "Like a Rolling Stone", on 25 July 1965, Dylan made a controversial appearance at the Newport Folk Festival , performing three songs with a full band. He was met with derisive booing and jeering from
15379-413: The commercial success of the Byrds' cover version of Dylan's " Mr. Tambourine Man ", along with Dylan's own contributions to the genre on the albums Bringing It All Back Home , Highway 61 Revisited , and Blonde on Blonde , initiated an explosion of emulators and imitators. Their success led record producer Tom Wilson to add electric guitar, bass, and drums overdubs to " The Sounds of Silence ",
15548-448: The concurrent offshoot of country rock . This successful blending of country, folk and rock styles led to pioneering country folk records by folk-influenced singer-songwriters such as John Denver and Neil Young during the 1970s. Country folk music usually displays a softer, more "laid-back" feel than the majority of country music and is often complemented by introspective lyrics, thus preserving its folk singer-songwriter roots. Since
15717-507: The conspicuously English folk rock music of the Albion Band, a group that also included Hutchings. In Brittany folk rock was developed by Alan Stivell (who began to mix his Breton, Irish, and Scottish roots with rock music) and later by French bands like Malicorne . During this same period, folk rock was adopted and developed in the surrounding Celtic cultures of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, and Cornwall, to produce Celtic rock and its derivatives. A subgenre originally arising from
15886-497: The country to record traditional music. The songs and tunes were popularized on public radio by performers such as Alan Mills, Stu Davis, Marg Osborne, and the Travellers . A number of musicians who grew up listening to this traditional music became singer-songwriters in the 1970s; for example, Gordon Lightfoot and Ian and Sylvia . English music : There were two folk music revivals in England. The first, led by Cecil Sharp ,
16055-465: The country, as Delta blues , Latino and Cajun musicians , and itinerant honky tonk singers spread to cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City. The growth of the music industry in the same period was also important; higher potential profits from music placed pressure on artists, songwriters, and label executives to replicate previous hit songs. This meant that musical fads, such as Hawaiian slack-key guitar , never died out completely, since
16224-426: The country, the only major roots revival was Okinawan , and began in the late 1980s. Popularized Okinawan folk music includes genres like kawachi ondo and goshu ondo . Korean music : In the early 1970s, a genre called t'ong guitar developed, performed by singer-songwriters inspired by the likes of American Bob Dylan and Joan Baez . Korean folk has seen little popular success, though there has been some for
16393-606: The country. It had a revival at the beginning of the XX century and then again a stronger revival by the end of the dictatorship in Spain in the 1970s. Carlos Nuñez and Luar na Lubre are two of the big names. Nuñez was discovered by The Chieftains and has become of the best selling Galician folk musicians. Galician artists also participate in the Festival Interceltique de Lorient in Bretagne. Gambian music : By
16562-403: The dance rhythms of Spain. The classical guitarists Andrés Segovia , John Williams and Julian Bream popularised the music through their recordings. Current popular folk musicians include Susana Seivane , Hevia and Milladoiro . A roots revival Nueva canción , which also evolved into new form of socially committed music occurred in several Spanish-speaking countries. Portuguese music : In
16731-504: The death of Henry Purcell had relied heavily on European composers and styles and was therefore indistinguishable from other national forms. This connection between the English folk revival and the English Musical Renaissance movement has been heavily emphasized in historical accounts of English art music throughout the 20th century (for example, see Frank Howes, The English Musical Renaissance (1966)). In any case,
16900-525: The earliest appearance of the ringing guitar sound that would become a mainstay of early folk rock. This use of cyclical, chiming guitar riffs was repeated on DeShannon's late 1963 recording of her own composition " When You Walk in the Room ". The following year, both songs would become hits for the Liverpudlian band the Searchers, who chose to place even greater emphasis on the jangly guitar playing in
17069-448: The early 1960s folk and country-influenced music of singer-songwriter artists such as Bob Dylan and Bobby Bare , as well as from folk revivalist vocal groups like the Kingston Trio. During the late 1960s, many folk rock artists including Dylan, Ian and Sylvia , and the Byrds began to incorporate a strong country influence into their music, drawing heavily on Hank Williams , Merle Haggard , and Buck Owens amongst others, resulting in
17238-669: The early 1960s include Judy Henske , Richard and Mimi Fariña , and the Mugwumps , the latter of which were a New York band featuring future members of the Lovin' Spoonful and the Mamas & the Papas. Also of note are the Australian band the Seekers , who had relocated to England in 1964 and reached number 1 on the UK Singles Chart with " I'll Never Find Another You " in February 1965. Unterberger has noted that, although it
17407-507: The early folk-rock music emerged during a time of general global upheaval, the Vietnam War , and new concerns for the world by young people. In the United States, the heyday of folk rock was arguably between the mid-sixties and the mid-seventies, when it aligned itself with the hippie movement and became an important medium for expressing radical ideas. Cities such as San Francisco, Denver , New York City and Phoenix became centers for
17576-496: The early to mid-1960s, the burgeoning nueva canción movement spread throughout Chile, Argentina, Bolivia and Peru, featuring a wave of singer-songwriters who incorporated folk elements and nationalist lyrics, often critical of governmental authorities, and achieved great acclaim. Violeta Parra is sometimes viewed as the founder of the scene, for she popularized Quechua and Aymara songs and provided an outlet for performances by future luminaries like Victor Jara . Cuban music : By
17745-556: The end of the 18th century this was becoming increasingly common, with collections including Joseph Ritson's The Bishopric Garland (1792) in northern England. In Scotland the earliest printed collection of secular music was by publisher John Forbes in Aberdeen in 1662 as Songs and Fancies: to Thre, Foure, or Five Partes, both Apt for Voices and Viols . It was printed three times in the next twenty years, and contained seventy-seven songs, of which twenty-five were of Scottish origin. In
17914-533: The era. Bands whose music was significantly folk rock in sound during the mid-to-late 1960s included Donovan , the Lovin' Spoonful, the Mamas & the Papas, the Youngbloods , Love , and, in their early years, Jefferson Airplane . In the mid-1960s, singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot began moving his folk songs into a folk-rock direction with recordings such as the percussion-driven "Black Day in July" about
18083-504: The explicit references made by Cecil Sharp to Engel's essays in English Folk-Song: Some Conclusions (1907, p. 2). Among the most influential of the revival's earliest figures were the Harvard professor Francis James Child (1825–96), Sabine Baring-Gould (1834–1924), Frank Kidson (1855–1926), Lucy Broadwood (1858–1939), and Anne Gilchrist (1863–1954). Kidson and Broadwood were important in
18252-400: The festival's purist folk music crowd, but in the years since the incident, Dylan's 1965 Newport Folk Festival appearance has become widely regarded as a pivotal moment in the synthesis of folk and rock. Dylan followed "Like a Rolling Stone" with the wholly electric album Highway 61 Revisited and the non-album single " Positively 4th Street ", which itself has been widely interpreted as
18421-576: The first among the British 'folk troubadours' or 'singer-songwriters', individual performers who remained largely acoustic, but who relied mostly on their own individual compositions. The most successful of these was Ralph McTell , whose " Streets of London " reached number 2 in the UK Single Charts in 1974, and whose music is clearly folk, but without and much reliance on tradition, virtuosity, or much evidence of attempts at fusion with other genres. British folk rock developed in Britain during
18590-409: The first and second revivals, respectively in the late 19th to early 20th centuries and the mid-20th century. The first included increased interest in and study of traditional folk music, the second was a part of the birth of contemporary folk music. These had a profound impact on the development of British classical music and in the creation of a "national" or "pastoral" school and led to the creation of
18759-468: The first bands to craft a distinctly American sound in response to the British Invasion was the Beach Boys ; while not a folk rock band themselves, they directly influenced the genre and at the height of the folk rock boom in 1966 had a hit with a cover of the 1920s West Indian folk song " Sloop John B ", which they had learned from the Kingston Trio , who had learned it from the Weavers . Much of
18928-508: The first revival, which wholly concerned itself with traditional music , the second revival was a part of the birth of non-traditional contemporary folk music. Like the American revival, it was often overtly left wing in its politics, and the leading figures, the Salford-born Ewan MacColl and A. L. Lloyd , were both involved in trade unionism and socialist politics. Several individuals emerged in England who had learnt
19097-471: The folk and country -influenced recordings featured on the Everly Brothers ' 1959 album Songs Our Daddy Taught Us . The moment when all of the separate influences that served to make up folk rock finally coalesced into an identifiable whole was with the release of the Byrds' recording of Bob Dylan's " Mr. Tambourine Man ". The term "folk rock" was coined by the U.S. music press to describe
19266-453: The folk rock band Pentangle in the late 1960s. Other notable folk rock artists with roots in the progressive folk scene were Donovan , Al Stewart , John Martyn and Paul Simon . They were doing things nobody was doing. Their chords were outrageous, just outrageous, and their harmonies made it all valid. You could only do that with other musicians. Even if you're playing your own chords you had to have other people playing with you. That
19435-432: The folk rock culture, playing on their central locations among the original folk circuits. The "unplugged" and simplified sound of the music reflected the genre's connection to a critical view of a technological and consumerist society. Unlike pop music's escapist lyrics, arguably a fantasy distraction from the problems in life, folk artists attempted to communicate concerns for peace, global awareness, and other touchstones of
19604-414: The folk scene including Martin Carthy. From the 1980s they also began to reissue their back catalogue on CD. In the late 1990s, with the resurgence of traditional folk, spearheaded by children of the revival such as Eliza Carthy , Topic gained both commercial and critical success. Criticisms of the second revival include disagreements about native language, style, accompaniment and authenticity. Critics of
19773-423: The folk-protest music with which he had been previously associated. On 20 July 1965, Dylan released the groundbreaking " Like a Rolling Stone ", a six-minute-long scathing put-down, directed at a down-and-out society girl, which again featured Dylan backed by an electric rock band. Released just as the Byrds' cover of "Mr. Tambourine Man" topped the charts in the United States, the song was instrumental in defining
19942-568: The foundation of the Folk Song Society in 1898. Later, major figures in this movement in England were Cecil Sharp (1859–1924) and his assistant Maud Karpeles (1885–1976) and the composers Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1951), George Butterworth (1885–1916), and the Australian Percy Grainger (1882–1961). Of these, Child's eight-volume collection The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (1882–92) has been
20111-451: The gap between folk and rock. Mr. Tambourine Man's blend of abstract lyrics, folk-influenced melody, complex harmonies , jangly 12-string Rickenbacker guitar playing, and Beatles-influenced beat, resulted in a synthesis that effectively created the subgenre of folk rock. The song's lyrics alone took rock and pop songwriting to new heights; never before had such intellectual and literary lyrics been combined with rock instrumentation by
20280-429: The general population to British and Irish folk music in the period. However, the second revival differed in several important respects from the first. In contrast to Sharp's emphasis on the rural, the activists of the second revival, particularly Lloyd, emphasized the work music of the 19th century, including sea shanties and industrial labour songs , most obviously on the album The Iron Muse (1963). It also took
20449-542: The growth of a Malian music industry, resulting in a revival of some kinds of folk music, and a popularization led by Salif Keita . Later Fanto Sacko 's bajourou music and wassoulou music also became popularized. However, by the 1980s, Malian pop had lost most traces of its folk origins and was simply dance music, even topping the European charts; another roots revival occurred, led by Guinean acoustic singer and kora player Jali Musa Jawara . Mozambiquan music : Music
20618-441: The impetus to start recording with an electric backing band. As the 1970s dawned, folk rock evolved away from the jangly template pioneered by the Byrds, but their influence could still be heard in the music of bands like Fairport Convention and Pentangle . The Byrds themselves continued to enjoy commercial success with their brand of folk rock throughout 1965, most notably with their number 1 single " Turn! Turn! Turn! ". By
20787-522: The introduction of the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2000, which gave the music a much-needed status and focus and made the profile of folk music as high in Britain as it has been for over thirty years. In the 2000s bands and artists appeared who function as cross-over acts between the indie rock and folk scenes. Their music often uses traditional instruments beside electronic music. London's nu-folk scene includes artists such as Laura Marling , Noah and
20956-545: The jangly sound of the electric twelve-string guitar . Many musicians in the collegiate and urban folk movements were already familiar with acoustic twelve-string guitars via the music of folk and blues singer Lead Belly. However, the Searchers' use of amplified twelve-strings provided another example of how conventional folk elements could be incorporated into rock music to produce new and exciting sounds. The Beatles' lead guitarist , George Harrison , also influenced this trend towards jangly guitars in folk rock with his use of
21125-684: The key figure was Dafydd Iwan , who founded the Sain record label in 1969. The second revival built on the work of the first, exploiting many of its resources. MacColl recorded many of the Child Ballads and Lloyd eventually joined the board of the EFDSS. The society was also responsible for sponsoring a BBC Home Service radio program, As I Roved Out , based on field recordings made by Peter Kennedy and Seamus Ennis from 1952 to 1958, which probably did more than any other single factor to introduce
21294-531: The key transitional albums The Times They Are A-Changin , Another Side of Bob Dylan , and Bringing It All Back Home , he was a key architect of Dylan's electric sound. He is perhaps even better known, however, for first discovering Simon & Garfunkel at the tail end of the folk movement and then transforming them into folk-rock superstars with the unauthorized rock remix that made a number one hit out of their previously underappreciated song, "The Sound of Silence". Music critic Richie Unterberger has noted that
21463-406: The large provincial towns who might achieve good results if they would spend their autumnal holidays in some rural district of the country, associate with the villagers, and listen to their songs. The significance of Engel's influence on the development of the English folk revival is evident in both the close resemblance of folk music collectors' activities to the fieldwork model he suggested and in
21632-514: The late 1960s the songs were performed in a contemporary style; this was the origin of the British folk rock style. British folk revival The British folk revival incorporates a number of movements for the collection, preservation and performance of folk music in the United Kingdom and related territories and countries, which had origins as early as the 18th century. It is particularly associated with two movements, usually referred to as
21801-442: The many later jazz, blues, pop and rock musicians that started performing in skiffle bands were a number of future folk performers, including Martin Carthy and John Renbourn . It also brought a greater familiarity with American roots music and helped expand the British folk club movement where American folk music also began to be played and which were an important part of the second revival. This started in London where MacColl began
21970-413: The mid- to late 1960s by the bands Fairport Convention and Pentangle , which built on elements of American folk rock , and on the British folk revival. It uses traditional music, and compositions in a traditional style, played on a combination of rock and traditional instruments. It was most significant in the 1970s, when it was taken up by groups such as Pentangle, Five Hand Reel , Steeleye Span and
22139-484: The mid-1960s, a folk revival was blossoming, led by Edgar Jofré . Brazilian music : Beginning in the 1950s and continuing for several decades, a multitude of Brazilian styles (most importantly samba ) and imported American jazz combined to create the wildly popular bossa nova scene. This soon evolved into the politically charged Tropicalia genre, which starred controversial and acclaimed singer-songwriters Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil . Chilean music : In
22308-437: The mid-1960s. The popularity and commercial success of the Byrds and Bob Dylan's blend of folk and rock music influenced a wave of imitators and emulators that retroactively became known as the folk rock boom. Although he started out as a jazz musician, the young, African-American Columbia Records producer Tom Wilson became known as the "mid-wife of folk-rock" for his seminal work behind the scenes. As Bob Dylan's producer during
22477-452: The mid-1970s. Ghanaian music : Ghana is best known for the highlife style of music, which has been popular throughout the 20th century. By the late 1960s, however, the pop scene was dominated by generic guitar bands that imitated Western acts. The 1971 Soul to Soul festival, however, featured a number of African American musicians (like Wilson Pickett and Tina Turner ), which had the effect of legitimizing African culture, thus causing
22646-475: The most influential collection, The Scots Musical Museum , published in six volumes from 1787 to 1803 by James Johnson and Robert Burns , which also included new words by Burns. The Select Scottish Airs collected by George Thomson and published between 1799 and 1818 included contributions from Burns and Walter Scott . With the Industrial Revolution the process of social stratification
22815-503: The most influential on defining the repertoire of subsequent performers and the music teacher Cecil Sharp was probably the most important in understanding of the nature of folk song. Sharp produced the five volume Folk Songs from Somerset from 1904 to 1909 and founded the English Folk Dance Society in 1911, an indication of his parallel interest in dance music. His lectures and other publications attempted to define
22984-520: The most prominent in Africa. Messi Me Nkonda Martin undoubtedly did the most to evolve bikutsi from its folk origins into a popular style using electric guitars and other importations, while Manu Dibango brought makossa to new audiences around the world. Chinese music : Partially as a reaction against attempts by the Communist government to use traditional styles to drum up patriotism and loyalty,
23153-404: The music of his native Iraq in his synthetic musical style. Italian music : The diverse regions of Italy are home to dozens of varieties of folk music. By the 1950s, their popularity was declining rapidly and a group of musicians and musicologists founded organizations like Istituto de Martino and Nuovo Canzoniere Italiano to help preserve folk cultures. The following decade saw a revival of
23322-475: The music of these British bands, and the Beatles in particular, had on young Americans was immediate; almost overnight, folk—along with many other forms of homegrown music—became passé for a large proportion of America's youth, who instead turned their attention to the influx of British acts. The influence of these acts also impacted on the collegiate folk and urban folk communities, with many young musicians quickly losing interest in folk music and instead embracing
23491-584: The nationalist impulse had subsided and with the tradition disappearing there were fewer singers available as sources. In 1932 the Folk-Song Society and the English Folk Dance Society merged to become the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS). New forms of media such as the phonograph and sound film meant that from the 1920s American music began to be increasingly important and even dominant in popular British culture, leading to
23660-458: The native sounds of their people Belgian music : Starting early in the 1960s, a wave of popular folk-based performers emerged, led by Wannes Van de Velde , who drew primarily on Flemish traditions. By the 1980s, popular bands included Brabants Volksorkest and the folk rock band Kadril . Beninese music : Artists like Tohon Stan have created a popular version of Benin's numerous styles of indigenous folk music, such as tchink-system ,
23829-496: The old songs in the oral tradition from their communities and therefore preserved the authentic versions. These individuals, such as Sam Larner , Harry Cox , Fred Jordan , Walter Pardon , and Frank Hinchliffe , released albums of their own and were revered by folk revivalists. In Scotland the key figures were Hamish Henderson and Calum McLean who collected songs and popularised acts including Jeannie Robertson , John Strachan , Flora MacNeil and Jimmy MacBeath . In Wales
23998-515: The opinion of Roger McGuinn of the Byrds, writers who attempt to define the origins of folk rock "don't realise that the Beatles were responsible as far back as 1963". He cites " She Loves You " as one of the first examples where the Beatles introduced folk chord changes into rock music and so initiated the new genre. These songs were all influential in providing a template for successfully assimilating folk-based chord progressions and melodies into pop music. This melding of folk and rock 'n' roll in
24167-429: The original genre draws on music of Europe and North America, there is no clear delineation of which other culture's music might be included as influences. The American folk-music revival began during the 1940s; building on the interest in protest folk singers such as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger , it reached a peak in popularity in the mid-1960s with artists such as Bob Dylan and Joan Baez . In 1948, Seeger formed
24336-504: The output of Fairport Convention. This followed the trend explored by Steeleye Span, and exemplified by their 1972 album Below the Salt . Acts in this area included Gryphon , Gentle Giant and Third Ear Band . In Germany Ougenweide , originally formed in 1970 as an acoustic folk group, opted to draw exclusively on High German medieval music when they electrified, setting the agenda for future German electric folk. In Brittany, as part of
24505-430: The overtly English folk rock of the Albion Band and Celtic rock . "Folk rock" refers to the blending of elements of folk and rock music, which arose in the U.S. and UK in the mid-1960s. The genre was pioneered by the Byrds, who began playing traditional folk music and songs by Bob Dylan with rock instrumentation, in a style heavily influenced by the Beatles and other British Invasion bands. The term folk rock
24674-548: The rapid expansion of this movement around the turn of the 20th century was the work of German expatriate musicologist Carl Engel , who provocatively claimed, in a collection of essays published in 1879, that it seemed to him: rather singular that England should not possess any printed collection of its national songs with the airs as they are sung at the present day; while almost every other European nation possesses several comprehensive works of this kind. Engel went on to suggest that: there are English musicians in London and in
24843-475: The repertoire of subsequent performers and defining the nature of folk song. His lectures and other publications attempted to define a musical tradition that was rural in origin, oral in transmission and communal in nature. The American folk music revival , which focused on culture and entertainment, began in the 1930s and 1940s. During the Great Depression , folk music styles were disseminated around
25012-441: The rock 'n' roll derived repertoire of the British Invasion. Future members of many folk rock acts, including the Byrds, Jefferson Airplane , the Lovin' Spoonful, the Mamas & the Papas , and Buffalo Springfield, all turned their backs on traditional folk music during 1964 and 1965 as a direct result of the influence of the Beatles and the other British Invasion bands. Author and music historian Richie Unterberger has noted that
25181-638: The search for a distinctive English voice led many composers, such as Percy Grainger (from 1905), Ralph Vaughan Williams (from about 1906) and George Butterworth (from about 1906), to use their folk music discoveries directly in composition. Vaughan Williams was also the editor of the English Hymnal (1906) and used many collected tunes and set poems to them to produce new religious songs. Similarly, other composers such as Gustav Holst (1874–1934) and Frederick Delius (1862–1934) wrote music that adopted sections, cadences or themes from English folk music. By
25350-423: The so-called "folk popular music" emerged with groups like Avsenik and Lojze Slak band, based on modernized Slovenian-style polka . In the 1980s, a completely different trend emerged, based on more archaic folk music, usually from specific regions; and it was popularized by groups like Istranova ( Slovenian Istria ) and singer Vlado Kreslin ( Prekmurje ). Argentine music : In the 1960s, Andean nationalism
25519-437: The songs. In addition, a number of DeShannon's songs from the period, including "When You Walk in the Room", displayed a greater degree of lyrical maturity and sensuality than was usual for pop songs of the time. This heightened degree of emotional introspection was inspired by her love of Bob Dylan's folk songwriting and represents one of the first attempts by an American artist to absorb folk sensibilities into rock music. In
25688-701: The start of 1966, however, the group had begun to move away from folk rock and into the new musical frontier of psychedelic rock . The folk rock sound of the Byrds has continued to influence many bands over the years, including Big Star , Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers , R.E.M. , the Long Ryders , the Smiths , the Bangles , the Stone Roses , and Teenage Fanclub , among others. Five days before
25857-489: The template for a flood of "collegiate folk" groups between 1958 and 1962. At roughly the same time as these "collegiate folk" vocal groups came to national prominence, a second group of urban folk revivalists, influenced by the music and guitar picking styles of folk and blues artist such as Woody Guthrie , Lead Belly , Brownie McGhee , and Josh White , also came to the fore. Many of these urban revivalists were influenced by recordings of traditional American music from
26026-426: The texts. The focus on collecting performed songs also disregarded the complex, but important, relationship between printed and oral forms, particularly the role of broadside ballads , which were sometimes records of existing songs and sometimes the origin or transmission point for others. Although collectors, from Grainger in 1905 onwards, experimented with new recording technology, it was generally rejected and there
26195-721: The urbanised middle class were unlikely to include entrepreneurs, landlords, stockbrokers or senior civil servants. Despite these issues, and the limited scale of the revival, it ensured the continuation of British folk music as a living and performed tradition. The fusing of various styles of American music with British folk also helped to create a distinctive form of fingerstyle guitar playing known as ' folk baroque ', pioneered by Davy Graham , Martin Carthy , John Renbourn and Bert Jansch . This led in part to progressive folk music, which attempted to elevate folk music through greater musicianship, or compositional and arrangement skills. Many progressive folk performers continued to retain
26364-432: The world, but many of these nations have created their own indigenous pop styles out of folk music; this process could be called a roots revival , though in some cases the folk musics in question were still widespread and did not need to be revived. The British folk revival was an academic movement to transcribe and record traditional British songs during the late 19th and early 20th century. Pioneers of this movement were
26533-526: Was a concentration on transcribing folk song in Britain, in contrast to America, where in a parallel movement John Avery Lomax made extensive recordings for the Library of Congress from 1933. This is thought to have created difficulties, since subtleties of performance have been lost and collectors often adjusted notation to fit their own, often classical, views of music or to fit their own preconceptions. Folk-song collecting continued after World War I, but
26702-468: Was academic. It involved the collection of songs and tunes and their publication in journals. It was at its peak about 1910. The second revival involved large-scale public performances of English music, beginning with the appearance of the Copper Family at the Royal Albert Hall in 1952, together with a proliferation of folk clubs meeting mainly in the upper rooms of public houses. Starting in
26871-503: Was also influential in developing Celtic rock during the late 1960s, with his albums The Hurdy Gurdy Man , Barabajagal , and Open Road , the latter of which actually featured a song entitled "Celtic Rock". The subgenre was further popularised in 1973 by Thin Lizzy , who had a hit with " Whiskey in the Jar ", a traditional Irish song performed entirely in the rock idiom. Throughout
27040-463: Was coined in the June 12, 1965, issue of the American music magazine Billboard by the journalist Eliot Siegel. Siegel used the term principally to describe the music of the Byrds, who had issued their debut album in the U.S. that month. In the same article, he wrote that Billy J. Kramer , Jackie DeShannon and Sonny & Cher had all started incorporating "folk-oriented material on singles", and he listed Rising Sons , Joe and Eddie and
27209-473: Was intensified and the themes of popular music began to change from rural and agrarian life to include industrial work songs . Awareness that older forms of song were being abandoned prompted renewed interest in collecting folk songs during the 1830s and 40s, including the work of William B. Sandys ' Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern (1833), William Chappell, A Collection of National English Airs (1838) and Robert Bell 's Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of
27378-502: Was not deliberately created; it evolved organically out of some of the band members' own folk music roots and their desire to emulate the Beatles. The band's folk influences, lack of experience with rock music forms, and Beatleseque instrumentation all combined to color both their self-penned material and their folk derived repertoire. The band themselves soon realized that there was something unique about their music and, with Dickson's encouragement, they began to actively attempt to bridge
27547-419: Was not strictly a folk song, "I'll Never Find Another You" was heavily influenced by Peter, Paul and Mary and featured a cyclical, twelve-string guitar part that sounded similar to the guitar style that Jim McGuinn of the Byrds would popularize later that same year. There are also a few antecedents to folk rock present in pre-British Invasion American rock 'n' roll, including Elvis Presley 's 1954 cover of
27716-438: Was not until 1956 and the advent of the skiffle craze that the British folk revival crossed over into the mainstream and connected with British youth culture. Skiffle renewed popularity of folk music forms in Britain and led directly to the progressive folk movement and the attendant British folk club scene . Among the leading lights of the progressive folk movement were Bert Jansch and John Renbourn , who would later form
27885-658: Was obvious. And it started me thinking about other people. —Bob Dylan reflecting on how the Beatles influenced his decision to record with an electric backing band Beginning in 1964 and lasting until roughly 1966, a wave of British beat groups, including the Beatles , the Rolling Stones , the Dave Clark Five , Gerry & the Pacemakers , the Kinks , and Herman's Hermits amongst others, dominated
28054-622: Was released in 1991 and would be considered a thrash metal album with some folk influences, unlike Cruachan's early work which embraced the folk element as a defining part of their sound. It was not until 1994 and 1995 that other early contributors in the genre began to emerge from different regions of Europe and beyond. Among these early groups, the German band Subway to Sally spearheaded a different regional variation that over time became known as medieval metal . Despite their contributions, folk metal remained little known with few representatives during
28223-494: Was spreading across Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Peru. Argentina's nativist scene includes landmark performers like Mercedes Sosa and Atahualpa Yupanqui , who helped spawn the nueva canción scene. Bolivian music : The 1950s saw an increase in nationalist identity surrounding the Quechua and Aymara peoples, and a number of intellectuals began associating themselves with folk music, clothing, cuisine and other elements. By
28392-586: Was the folk rhythms of the Bété . Croatian music : By the 1980s, Croatian pop-folk had seen some mainstream success, and a wave of bands appeared, inspired by Vještice , who combined Međimurje folk music with rock in an innovative fusion of sounds. Czech music : In 1966, the Porta Festival was held, and a wave of singer-songwriters inspired by the likes of American Pete Seeger arose. Danish music : In contrast to its neighbors, Denmark did not see
28561-488: Was used in the 1960s by the independence movement in Mozambique. Leaders in this movement encouraged the growth of a national music industry. By the 1970s, native forms of music, such as marrabenta , had been popularized. Russian music : Starting in about 1966, a group of bards arose, most prominently including Vladimir Vysotsky , and Vyacheslav Shchurov organized a number of concerts for folk singers. This led to
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