The A.V. Alexandrov Russian army twice red-bannered academic song and dance ensemble The A.V. Alexandrov Russian army twice red-bannered academic song and dance ensemble The A.V. Alexandrov Russian army twice red-bannered academic song and dance ensemble ' onMouseout='HidePop("64592")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/John_Peel">John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004. He was known for his eclectic taste in music and...
.
The Hungarian group
MuzsikásMuzsikás is a Hungarian musical group playing mainly folk music of Hungary and other countries and peoples of the region. Established in 1973, it has also played works by classical composers, especially Béla Bartók, who himself collected folk tunes...
played numerous American tours and participated in the Hollywood movie
The English PatientThe English Patient is a 1996 film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Michael Ondaatje. The film, directed by Anthony Minghella, won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture...
while the singer
Márta SebestyénMárta Sebestyén is a Hungarian folk vocalist.Sebestyén was educated at Miklós Radnóti Grammar School, Budapest. She has sung regularly and recorded with the Hungarian folk group Muzsikás...
worked with the band
Deep ForestDeep Forest is a musical group consisting of two French musicians, Michel Sanchez and Eric Mouquet. They compose a new kind of world music, sometimes called ethnic electronica, mixing ethnic with electronic sounds and dance beats or chillout beats. Their sound has been described as an...
. The Hungarian
táncházTáncház is a "casual" Hungarian folk dance event . It is an aspect of the Hungarian roots revival of traditional culture which began in the early 1970s, and remains an active part of the national culture across the country, especially in cities like Budapest...
movement, started in the 1970s, involves strong cooperation between musicology experts and enthusiastic amateurs. Hungarian folk music and folk culture still survived in rural areas, as it did also in Romania (especially Transylvania).
The movement revived broader folk traditions of music, dance, and costume together and created a new kind of music club. The movement spread to ethnic Hungarian communities around the world. Today, almost every major city in the U.S. and Australia has its own Hungarian folk music and folk dance group; there are also groups in Japan, Hong Kong, Argentina and Western Europe.
Balkan folk music was influenced by the mingling of Balkan ethnic groups in the period of
Ottoman EmpireThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
. It comprises the music of
Bosnia and HerzegovinaLike the surrounding Balkan countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina has had a turbulent past marked by frequent foreign invasions and occupation. As a result, Bosnian music is now a mixture of ethnic Bosniak, Croat, Serb, Greek , Roma , Turkish, Hungarian and Macedonian influences along with influences...
,
CroatiaThe music of Croatia, like the divisions of the country itself, has three major influences: the Mediterranean especially present in the coastal areas, of the Balkans especially in the mountainous, continental parts, and of Central Europe in the central and northern parts of the country.While both...
,
BulgariaBulgarian music is part of the Balkan tradition, which stretches across Southeastern Europe, and has its own distinctive sound. Traditional Bulgarian music has had more international success,due to the breakout international success of Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, a woman's choir that has topped...
,
GreeceThe musical legacy of Greece is as diverse as its history. Cypriot music has certain similarities to traditional Greek music, and their modern popular music scenes remain well-integrated. Today, music is still a huge part of Greek culture, even Greek American culture...
,
MontenegroThe music of Montenegro represents a mix of the country's unique musical tradition and Western musical influences.-History:In the 10th and 11th centuries a composer of religious chants was the oldest composer known from the Adriatic coast...
,
SerbiaThe Music of the Serbs and Serbia presents a variety of traditional music, which is part of the wider Balkan tradition, with its own distinctive sound and characteristics.-History:...
,
SloveniaThe music of Slovenia is closely related to Austrian, Istrian and Croatian because of its common history and Alpine and littoral culture. In the minds of many Slovenes and foreigners, Slovenian folk music means a form of polka that is still popular today, especially among expatriates and their...
,
Republic of MacedoniaMusic of the Republic of Macedonia and the Macedonians has many things in common with the music of neighbouring Balkan countries, but maintains its own distinctive sound.-Folk music:...
,
AlbaniaAlbanian music displays a variety of influences. Albanian folk music traditions differ by region, with major stylistic differences between the traditional music of the Ghegs in the north and Tosks in the south. Modern popular music has developed around the centers of Korça, Shkodër and Tirana....
,
TurkeyThe music of Turkey includes diverse elements ranging from Central Asian folk music and music from Ottoman Empire dominions such as Persian music, Balkan music and Byzantine music, as well as more modern European and American popular music influences. In turn, it has influenced these cultures...
,
Yugoslavia-Meaning:Music of Yugoslavia can mean:#Music of Kingdom of Yugoslavia .#Music of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia which includes the music of its constituent republics: Socialist Republic of Slovenia, Socialist Republic of Croatia, Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina,...
or the
State Union of Serbia and MontenegroSerbia and Montenegro was a Balkan country, recently ravaged by war that has caused widespread migration and cultural oppression. Indigenous folk music remains popular, both traditional tunes and more modern compositions...
and geographical regions such as
ThraceMusic of Thrace is the music of Thrace, a region in Southeastern Europe spread over southern Bulgaria , northeastern Greece , and European Turkey ....
. Some music is characterised by complex rhythm. An important part of the whole Balkan folk music is the music of the local Romani ethnic minority.
Notable venues
It is sometimes claimed that the earliest folk festival was the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, 1928, in Asheville, North Carolina, founded by
Bascom Lamar LunsfordBascom Lamar Lunsford was a lawyer, folklorist, and performer of traditional music from western North Carolina. He was often known by the nickname "Minstrel of the Appalachians."- Early life :...
. Sidmouth Festival began in 1954, and Cambridge Folk Festival began in 1965. The
Cambridge Folk FestivalThe Cambridge Folk Festival is an annual music festival held on the site of Cherry Hinton Hall in Cherry Hinton, one of the villages subsumed by the city of Cambridge, England. The festival is renowned for its eclectic mix of music and a wide definition of what might be considered folk. It occurs...
in
CambridgeThe city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. It is also at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen....
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
is noted for having a very wide definition of who can be invited as folk musicians. The "club tents" allow attendees to discover large numbers of unknown artists, who, for ten or 15 minutes each, present their work to the festival audience.
Folk music is still popular among some audiences today, with folk music clubs meeting to share traditional-style songs, and there are major folk music festivals in many countries, eg the
Woodford Folk FestivalThe Woodford Folk Festival is an annual music festival held near the small country town of Woodford, 70 km north of Brisbane, Australia. It is one of the biggest annual cultural events in Australia....
,
National Folk FestivalThe National Folk Festival is the name of several festivals that celebrate the folk music of a particular nation.*The Touring National Folk Festival in the US National Folk Festival...
and Port Fairy Folk Festival are amongst Australia's largest major annual events, attracting top international folk performers as well as many local artists. This includes the music of
AmericanaAmericana is an amalgam of roots music formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the American musical ethos; specifically those sounds that are merged from folk, country, rhythm & blues, rock & roll and other external influential styles...
, Naturalismo,
Bonnie "Prince" BillyWill Oldham, a.k.a. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy , is an American singer, songwriter, and actor. From 1993 to 1997 he performed and recorded under variations of the Palace name, including the Palace Brothers, Palace Songs, and Palace Music.-Music:Will Oldham is known for his "do-it-yourself punk aesthetic...
,
Devendra BanhartDevendra Banhart is an American singer-songwriter and visual artist. Banhart was born in Houston, Texas and was raised by his mother in Venezuela, until he returned to California as a teenager. He began to study at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1998, but dropped out to perform music in...
and others.
Anti-folk now has a home at the Antihootenany in the East Village, where artists like Beck, Regina Spektor, the Moldy Peaches and Nellie McKay got their starts.
Asia
Many Asian civilisations distinguish between art/court/classical styles and "folk" music, though cultures that do not depend greatly upon notation and have much anonymous art music must distinguish the two in different ways from those suggested by western scholars.
The European folk revival
The first folk revival influenced western
classical musicClassical music is the mainstream music produced in, or rooted in the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 9th century to present times...
. Such composers as
Percy GraingerGeorge Percy Grainger was an Australian-born composer, and pianist, who worked under the stage name of Percy Aldridge Grainger.-Early life and career :Percy Grainger was born in Brighton, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria...
,
Ralph Vaughan WilliamsRalph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores...
and
Béla BartókBéla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist, considered to be one of the greatest composers of the 20th century, and regarded, along with Liszt, as his country's greatest composer...
, made field recordings or transcriptions of folk singers and musicians.
In Spain Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909) produced piano works reflect his Spanish heritage, including the
Suite Iberia (1906-1909). Enrique Granados (1867-1918) composed
zarzuela, Spanish light opera, and
Danzas Españolas - Spanish Dances. Manuel de Falla (1876–1946) became interested in the
cante jondoCante jondo is a vocal style in flamenco. An unspoiled form of Andalusian folk music, the name means deep song It is generally considered that the common traditional classification of flamenco music is divided into three groups of which the deepest, most serious forms are known as cante jondo...
of Andalusian
flamencoFlamenco is a Spanish musical genre with origins in Andalusia. It can be both a musical form, known for its intricate rapid passages, and a dance characterized by audible footwork. The origins of the term are unclear...
, the influence of which can be strongly felt in many of his works, which include
Nights in the Gardens of SpainNights in the Gardens of Spain is a piece of music by the Andalusian composer Manuel de Falla ....
and
Siete canciones populares españolas ("Seven Spanish Folksongs", for voice and piano). Composers such as
Fernando SorJosep Ferran Sorts i Muntades was a Spanish guitarist and composer. He is best known for his guitar compositions, but he also composed music for opera and ballet, earning acclaim for his ballet titled Cendrillon...
and
Francisco TarregaFrancisco de Asís Tárrega y Eixea, was an influential Spanish composer and guitarist.-Biography:Tárrega was born on 21 November 1852, in Villarreal, Castellón, Spain...
established the
guitarThe guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that adapts readily to a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six strings, but four-, seven-, eight-, ten-, eleven-, twelve-, thirteen- and eighteen-string guitars also exist. The size and shape of the neck and the base of the guitar...
as Spain's national instrument. Modern Spanish Folk artists abound (Mil i Maria, Russian Red et al) modernizing whilst respecting the traditions of their forebears.
Flamenco grew in popularity through the 20th century, as did northern styles such as the Celtic music of Galicia. French classical composers, from Bizet to Ravel, also drew upon Spanish themes, and distinctive Spanish genres became universally recognised.
The folk revival of the 1950s in Britain and America
While the Romantic nationalism of the folk revival had its greatest influence on art-music, the "second folk revival" of the later 20th century brought a new genre of
popular musicPopular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres, and stands in contrast to art music, and traditional music which was disseminated orally...
with artists marketed by amplified concerts, recordings and broadcasting. The American
Woody GuthrieWoodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
collected folk music in the 1930s and 1940s and also composed his own songs, as did
Pete SeegerPeter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and a key figure in the mid-20th century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early '50s as a member of The Weavers, most notably the 1950 recording of Leadbelly's...
. In the 1930s
Jimmie RodgersJames Charles Rodgers , known as "Jimmie," was a country singer in the early 20th century known most widely for his rhythmic yodeling...
, in the 1940s
Burl IvesBurl Icle Ivanhoe Ives was an American actor, writer and folk music singer.As an actor, Ives's work included comedies, dramas and voice work in theater, television and motion pictures. A prolific recording artist, the prominent music critic John Rockwell has been quoted in the New York Times as...
and in the 1950s Seeger's group
The WeaversThe Weavers were an American folk music quartet based in the Greenwich Village area of New York City. They sang traditional folk songs from around the world, as well as blues, gospel music, children's songs, labor songs, and American ballads, selling millions of records at the height of their...
,
Harry BelafonteHarold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. , is an American musician, actor and social activist. One of the most successful popular singers in history, he was dubbed the "King of Calypso", a title which he was very reluctant to accept for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an...
,
The Kingston TrioThe Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to late 1960s. The group originated as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, and Nick Reynolds...
, and
The LimelitersThe Limeliters are a folk music group formed in July 1959 by Lou Gottlieb , Alex Hassilev , and Glenn Yarbrough . The group was active from 1959 until 1965, when they disbanded. After a hiatus of sixteen years Yarbrough, Hassilev, and Gottlieb reunited and began performing as The...
found a popularity that culminated in the
Hootenanny television series and the associated magazine
ABC-TV HootenannyLinda Solomon is an American music critic and editor. Although she has written about various aspects of popular culture, her main focus has been on folk music, blues, R&B, jazz and country music...
in 1963–1964.
Sing Out!Sing Out! is a quarterly journal of folk music and folk songs that has been published since May 1950.-Background:Sing Out! is the primary publication of the tax exempt, not-for-profit, educational corporation of the same name...
magazine helped spread both traditional and composed songs, as did folk-revival-oriented record companies.
In the 1960s, folk singers and songwriters such as
Joan BaezJoan Chandos Baez is a folk singer and songwriter known for her highly individual vocal style...
,
Bob DylanBob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet and painter who has been a major figure in popular music for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was, at first, an informal chronicler and then an apparently reluctant figurehead of social unrest...
,
Phil OchsPhilip David Ochs was a U.S. protest singer and songwriter who was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, earnest humanism, political activism, insightful and alliterative lyrics, and haunting voice...
, and
Tom PaxtonThomas Richard Paxton is an American folk singer and singer-songwriter who has been writing, performing and recording music for over forty years...
followed in
Guthrie'sWoodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
footsteps, writing "
protest musicA protest song is a song which is associated with a movement for social change and hence part of the broader category of topical songs . It may be folk, classical, or commercial in genre...
" and
topical songA topical song is a song that comments on political and/or social events. These types of songs are usually written about current events, but some of these songs remain popular long after the events discussed in them have occurred...
s and expressing support for the American Civil Rights Movement. The Canadians
Gordon LightfootGordon Meredith Lightfoot, Jr., CC, O.Ont is a Canadian singer and songwriter who has achieved international success in folk, country, and popular music...
,
Leonard CohenLeonard Norman Cohen, CC, GOQ is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often deals with the exploration of religion, isolation, sexuality and complex interpersonal relationships...
,
Bruce CockburnBruce Douglas Cockburn, OC is a Canadian folk/rock guitarist and singer-songwriter. His 29th album was released in summer 2006, and he has written songs in styles ranging from folk to jazz-influenced rock to rock and roll.-Biography:...
and
Joni MitchellJoni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, songwriter, and painter.Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Western Canada and then busking on the streets of Toronto...
were all invested with the
Order of CanadaThe Order of Canada is an honour for merit that is, within the Canadian system of honours, the highest such order administered by the Governor General-in-Council, on behalf of the Queen of Canada. Created in 1967, to coincide with the centennial of Canadian...
. Dylan's use of electric instruments helped inaugurate the genres of
folk rockFolk rock is a musical genre, combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
and
country rockCountry-rock is a musical genre formed from the fusion of rock with country music, with its country origins being initially referenced to the rockabilly music of the 1950s....
, particularly by his album
John Wesley HardingJohn Wesley Harding may refer to:* John Wesley Harding , a 1967 Bob Dylan album* John Wesley Harding , English singer...
and his support for the music of
The BandThe Band was a rock music group active from 1967 to 1976 and again from 1983 to 1999. The original group consisted of four Canadians: Robbie Robertson ; Richard Manuel ; Garth Hudson ; and Rick Danko , and...
. Many of the
acid rockAcid rock is a form of psychedelic rock, which is characterized with long instrumental solos, few lyrics and musical improvisation. Tom Wolfe describes the LSD-influenced music of The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Doors, Iron Butterfly, Big Brother & The Holding Company, Cream, Jefferson Airplane,...
bands of San Francisco began by playing acoustic folk and blues.
In 1950
Alan LomaxAlan Lomax was an American folklorist and ethnomusicologist. He was one of the great field collectors of folk music of the 20th century, recording thousands of songs in the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, the West Indies, Italy, and Spain.-Biography:Lomax was the son of pioneering...
came to
BritainThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
and met A.L.'Bert' Lloyd and
Ewan MacCollEwan MacColl was an English/Scottish folk singer, songwriter, socialist, actor, poet, playwright, and record producer...
, a meeting credited as inaugurating the second British folk revival. In London the colleagues opened The Ballads and Blues Club, eventually renamed the Singers' Club, possibly the first folk club: it closed in 1991. As the 1950s progressed into the 1960s, the folk revival movement built up in both Britain and America.
In the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
, the folk revival fostered young artists like
Martin CarthyMartin Carthy MBE is an English folk singer and guitarist who has remained one of the most influential figures in British traditional music, inspiring contemporaries such as Bob Dylan and Paul Simon and later artists such as Richard Thompson since he emerged as a young musician in the early days of...
and
Roy BaileyRoy Bailey , is a British socialist folk singer. Roy began his singing career in a skiffle group in 1958.Colin Irwin from the music magazine Mojo said Bailey represents "the very soul of folk's working class ideals.....
and a generation of singer-songwriters such as
Bert JanschHerbert Jansch , known as Bert Jansch, is a Scottish folk musician and founding member of the band Pentangle. He was born in Glasgow and, in the 1960s, he was heavily influenced by the guitarist Davey Graham and folk singers such as Anne Briggs...
,
Ralph McTellRalph McTell is an English singer-songwriter and acoustic guitar player who has been an influential figure on the UK folk music scene since the 1960s....
,
DonovanDonovan , is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music...
and
Roy HarperRoy Harper , is an English rock / folk singer-songwriter / guitarist who has been a professional musician since the mid 1960s. Harper has admitted being influenced by many forms of music, ranging from Miles Davis to Indian Raga to Stravinsky...
. Bob Dylan,
Paul SimonPaul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter. He entered the public consciousness in 1965 as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, along with longtime artistic partner Art Garfunkel. Simon solely wrote most of duo's songs, including such memorable songs as "The Sound of Silence", "The Boxer",...
and Tom Paxton visited Britain for some time in the early 1960s, the first two, particularly, making later use of the traditional English material they heard.
The late 1960s saw the advent of
electric folkElectric folk is the name given to the form of folk rock pioneered in England from the late 1960s, and most significant in the 1970s, which then was taken up and developed in the surrounding Celtic cultures of Brittany, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man, to produce Celtic rock and its...
groups, a key moment being the release of
Fairport ConventionFairport Convention are an English folk rock and later electric folk band, formed in 1967 who are still recording and touring today. They are widely regarded as the most important single group in the English folk rock movement...
's album Liege and Lief. Guitarist Richard Thompson declared that the music of The Band demanded a corresponding "English Electric" style, while bassist
Ashley HutchingsAshley Hutchings is a bassist, vocalist, songwriter, arranger, band leader, writer and record producer. He was a founder member of the three most significant English folk-rock bands in the history of the genre, Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span and The Albion Band; he has overseen numerous other...
formed
Steeleye SpanSteeleye Span is a British electric folk band, formed in 1969 and remaining active today. Along with Fairport Convention they are amongst the best known acts of the British folk revival, and were among the most commercially successful, thanks to their hit singles "Gaudete" and "All Around My Hat"....
in order to pursue a wholly traditional repertoire. In the second half of the 1990s, once more, folk music made an impact on the mainstream music via a younger generation of artists such as
Eliza CarthyEliza Carthy , is an English folk musician known for both singing and playing fiddle. She is the daughter of English folk musicians singer/guitarist Martin Carthy and singer Norma Waterson....
,
Kate RusbyKate Anna Rusby , is an English folk singer and songwriter from Penistone, South Yorkshire. Sometimes known as The Barnsley Nightingale, she has headlined various British national folk festivals, and is regarded as one of the most famous English folk singers of contemporary times...
and
Spiers and BodenSpiers and Boden are an English folk duo. John Spiers plays melodeon, concertina and other squeezeboxes, while Jon Boden plays fiddle, sings, and stamps out the rhythm on a piece of board.-Biography:...
.
Popular folk subgenres
- Contemporary country music
Country music is a blend of popular musical forms originally found in the Southern United States and the Appalachian Mountains...
descends ultimately from a rural American folk tradition, but has evolved. Bluegrass musicBluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and is a sub-genre of country music. It has roots in Irish, West African, Scottish, Welsh and English traditional music. Bluegrass was inspired by the music of immigrants from the United Kingdom and Ireland , and African-Americans, particularly...
is a professional development of American old time music, intermixed with bluesBlues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre created within the African-American communities in the Deep South of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
and jazzJazz is a musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
.
- Exponents of electric folk
Electric folk is the name given to the form of folk rock pioneered in England from the late 1960s, and most significant in the 1970s, which then was taken up and developed in the surrounding Celtic cultures of Brittany, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man, to produce Celtic rock and its...
music such as Fairport ConventionFairport Convention are an English folk rock and later electric folk band, formed in 1967 who are still recording and touring today. They are widely regarded as the most important single group in the English folk rock movement...
, PentanglePentangle are a British folk rock band with some jazz influences. The original band were active in the late 1960s and early 1970s and a later version have been active since the early 1980s...
, Alan StivellAlan Stivell is a French and Breton musician and singer, recording artist and master of the celtic harp who from the early 1970s revived global interest in the Celtic harp and Celtic Music as part of World Music.- Background-Learning Breton Music and Culture :Alan was born in the Auvergnat town...
, Mr. FoxMr Fox were an early 1970s electric folk or folk rock band. They were seen as in the ‘second generation’ of electric folk performers and for a time were compared with Steeleye Span and Sandy Denny’s Fotheringay. Unlike Steeleye Span they mainly wrote their own material in a traditional style and...
and Steeleye SpanSteeleye Span is a British electric folk band, formed in 1969 and remaining active today. Along with Fairport Convention they are amongst the best known acts of the British folk revival, and were among the most commercially successful, thanks to their hit singles "Gaudete" and "All Around My Hat"....
saw electrification of traditional musical forms as a means to reach a far wider audience.
- Traditional folk music merged with rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States after World War II in the late 1940s, from a combination of the rhythms of the blues, from the African American culture, and from America's country music and gospel music scenes...
to form folk rockFolk rock is a musical genre, combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
performers such as The ByrdsThe Byrds were an American rock and roll band. Formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964, The Byrds underwent several personnel changes, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973....
, Simon & Garfunkel and The Mamas & the PapasThe Mamas & the Papas were a vocal group of the 1960s. The group recorded and performed from 1965 to 1968 with a short reunion in 1971, releasing five albums and 11 Top 40 hit singles...
. Since the 1970s a genre of "contemporary folk" fueled by new singer-songwriters has continued with such artists as Chris CastleChris Castle is a folk/Americana singer-songwriter. Cleveland Magazine has described his writing as an "authentic connection to the world-weary soul of American roots music"., while The New London Day's Rick Koster calls Castle "a visionary songwriter"..-Early life:Born in Sandusky, Ohio in 1976,...
, Steve GoodmanSteve Goodman was an American folk music singer-songwriter from Chicago, Illinois. The writer of "City of New Orleans", made popular by Arlo Guthrie, Goodman won two Grammy Awards.-Personal life:...
, and John PrineJohn Prine is an American country/folk singer-songwriter. He has been active as a recording artist and live performer since the early 1970s.-Biography:...
. The PoguesThe Pogues are a band of mixed Irish and English background, playing traditional Irish music with influences from punk rock and jazz, formed in 1982 and fronted by Shane MacGowan. They reached international prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s, until MacGowan left the band in 1991 due to...
and Ireland's The CorrsThe Corrs are a Celtic folk rock group from Dundalk, Ireland. The group consists of the Corr siblings: Andrea ; Sharon ; Caroline ; and Jim ....
brought traditional tunes back into the albumAn album or record album is a collection of related audio or music tracks distributed to the public. The most common way is through commercial distribution, although smaller artists will often distribute directly to the public by selling their albums at live concerts or on their websites.-...
charts.
- In the 1980s artists like Phranc
Phranc is an American singer-songwriter whose career has spanned several decades.-Biography:She began her performing career in the late 1970s and early 1980s punk scene in Los Angeles...
and The KnittersThe Knitters are a Los Angeles-based band who play country, rockabilly and folk music. At the time of their formation they were pioneers of country punk, cowpunk or folk punk, the genre which gradually evolved into alternative country...
propagated cowpunkCowpunk or Country punk is a subgenre of punk rock that began in Southern California in the 1980s, especially Los Angeles. It combines punk rock with country music, folk music, and blues in sound, subject matter, attitude, and style. It grew directly out of the city's strong roots in both country...
or folk punkFolk punk , is a fusion of folk music and punk rock. It was pioneered by the London-based Irish band The Pogues in the 1980s...
, which eventually evolved into alt country. More recently the same spirit has been embraced and expanded on by performers such as Dave AlvinDave Alvin , is a guitarist, singer and songwriter.- Early musical influences :Dave and his older brother Phil grew up in a music-loving family in Downey, California...
, Miranda StoneMiranda Stone is a Canadian singer-songwriter originating from the Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario region and currently based in Toronto where she operates independent record label Earthdress Productions....
and Steve EarleStephen 'Steve' Fain Earle is an American singer-songwriter known for his rock and country music as well as his political views. He is also a published writer, a political activist and has written and directed a play...
.
- Hard rock
Hard rock or heavy rock is a sub-genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage and psychedelic rock and is considerably harder than conventional rock music...
and heavy metalHeavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in England and the United States...
bands such as KorpiklaaniKorpiklaani is a folk metal band from Finland who were formerly known as Shaman. The name Korpiklaani means "Forest Clan" in the Finnish language.-Biography:...
, SkycladSkyclad are a British heavy metal band with heavy folk influences in their music. They are considered one of the pioneers of folk metal. The etymology behind the term "skyclad" comes from a pagan/wiccan term for ritual nudity, in which rituals are performed with the participants metaphorically clad...
, WaylanderWaylander is an Irish band influential in the realms of Celtic folk metal. Formed in 1993, the band blends traditional Irish folk with 1990s heavy metal.-Biography:...
and FinntrollFinntroll is an extreme metal & folk metal band from Finland. They combine elements of black metal, death metal, and folk metal with Finnish polka, called humppa. Finntroll's lyrics are in Swedish, one of Finland's two national languages, because "Swedish just sounds damn trollish", according to...
meld elements from a wide variety of traditions, including in many cases instruments such as fiddles, tin whistleThe tin whistle, also called the tinwhistle, whistle, penny whistle , Irish whistle, feadóg, or feadóg stáin is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is an end blown fipple flute, putting it in the same category as the flageolet, recorder, Native American flute, and other woodwind instruments...
s, accordions and bagpipesBagpipes are a class of musical instrument, aerophones using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. Though the Scottish Great Highland Bagpipe and Irish uilleann pipes have the greatest international visibility, bagpipes of several varieties can be found in use...
. Folk metalFolk metal is a sub-genre of heavy metal music that developed in Europe during the 1990s. As the name suggests, the genre is a fusion of heavy metal with traditional folk music. This includes the widespread use of folk instruments and, to a lesser extent, traditional singing styles.The earliest...
often favours paganPaganism is a word with several different meanings.In its broadest definition, pagan denotes all non-Abrahamic religions, that is to say it denotes all religions other than Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.Other usages are:*Paganism may mean Polytheism: The group so defined includes most of the...
inspired themes. Black metalBlack metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It often employs fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, double-kick drumming, and unconventional song structure....
and viking metalViking metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music characterised by its galloping pace, keyboard-rich anthemic sound, bleakness and dramatic emphasis on Norse mythology, Norse paganism, and the Viking Age.-Characteristics:...
are defined on their folk stance, incorporating folk interludes into albums (eg, Bergtatt and KveldssangerKveldssanger is the second album by Norwegian band Ulver.The album is quite different from the band's previous offering Bergtatt in that the band's vocalist, Garm, only uses choir-like chanting instead of the usual harsh black metal vocals...
, the first two albums by once-black metal, now-experimentalExperimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-twentieth century, particularly in North America, and whose most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
band UlverUlver is a musical trio from Norway. Since their first, folklore-influenced black metal release entitled Bergtatt - Et eeventyr i 5 capitler , Ulver’s musical style has been fluid and increasingly eclectic, blending genres such as avant-garde rock, trip hop, symphonic and chamber traditions, noise...
). Other subgenres include.
- Indie folk
Indie folk is a music genre that arose in the 1990s from singer/songwriters in the indie rock community showing heavy influences from folk music scenes of the 50's, 60's and early 70's. A few early artists included Beck, Elliott Smith and Lou Barlow. This genre is often closely related to others...
- Techno-folk
Techno-folk is a music genre that combines elements of folk music and techno music.Such definition of musical style of techno folk is given by the founder of this style composer Sasha Lans : techno folk is a style in music, combining melodies and harmonies, characteristic for any nation, a...
- Industrial folk music
Industrial folk music, industrial folk song or industrial work song is a subgenre of folk or traditional music that developed from the eighteenth century, particularly in Britain and North America, with songs dealing with the lives and experiences of industrial workers.-Origins:Industrial folk song...
- Filk music
Filk is a musical culture, genre, and community tied to science fiction/fantasy fandom and a type of fan labor. The genre has been active since the early 1950s, and played primarily since the mid-1970s...
can be considered folk music stylistically and culturally (though the 'community' it arose from, science fiction fandomScience fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community of people actively interested in science fiction and fantasy literature, and in contact with one another based upon that interest...
, is an unusual and thoroughly modern one).
- Neofolk
Neofolk is a form of folk music-inspired experimental music that emerged from post-industrial music circles. Neofolk can either be solely acoustic folk music or a blend of acoustic folk instrumentation aided by varieties of accompanying sounds such as pianos, strings and elements of industrial...
began in the 1980s, fusing traditional European folk music with post-industrial music, historical topics, philosophical commentary, traditional songs and paganismPaganism is a word with several different meanings.In its broadest definition, pagan denotes all non-Abrahamic religions, that is to say it denotes all religions other than Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.Other usages are:*Paganism may mean Polytheism: The group so defined includes most of the...
. The genre is largely European.
- Anti folk, began in New York City in the 1980s by Lach
Lach is a musician associated with the anti-folk movement. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he was trained as a classical pianist from an early age only to abandon it once he heard The Sex Pistols, The Jam and The Clash for the first time. Realizing he was a songwriter, Lach backtracked and explored...
in response to the "confined" American folk music revivalThe American folk music revival was a phenomenon in the United States in the 1950s to mid-1960s. Its roots went earlier, of course, since traditional folk music has thousands of years of history, and performers like Burl Ives, Woody Guthrie, and Cisco Houston had enjoyed a limited general...
.
- Folk punk
Folk punk , is a fusion of folk music and punk rock. It was pioneered by the London-based Irish band The Pogues in the 1980s...
, (known in its early days as rogue folk), is a fusion of folk music and punk rock. It was pioneered by the London-based Irish band The Pogues in the 1980s.
Media
Further reading
- Anon. (2003) Lamentations chez les nomades bakhtiari d'Iran. Paris:.
- Bayard, Samuel Preston (1950). "Prolegomena to a Study of the Principal Melodic Families of British-American Folksong", Journal of American Folklore
The term
folk music originated in the 19th century as a term for musical
folkloreFolklore is the body of expressive culture, including stories, music, dance, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, customs, and so forth within a particular population comprising the traditions of that culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which...
. It has been defined in several ways; as music transmitted by word of mouth, music of the lower classes, music with no known composer. It has been contrasted with commercial and classical styles.
Since the middle of the 20th century the term has also been used to describe a kind of
popular musicPopular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres, and stands in contrast to art music, and traditional music which was disseminated orally...
that is based on traditional music. Subgenres include
folk rockFolk rock is a musical genre, combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
,
electric folkElectric folk is the name given to the form of folk rock pioneered in England from the late 1960s, and most significant in the 1970s, which then was taken up and developed in the surrounding Celtic cultures of Brittany, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man, to produce Celtic rock and its...
,
folk metalFolk metal is a sub-genre of heavy metal music that developed in Europe during the 1990s. As the name suggests, the genre is a fusion of heavy metal with traditional folk music. This includes the widespread use of folk instruments and, to a lesser extent, traditional singing styles.The earliest...
and
progressive folk musicProgressive folk or prog folk was originally a type of American folk music that pursued a progressive political agenda, but in the United Kingdom the term became attached to a sub-genre that rejects or de-emphasizes the conventions of traditional folk music and encourages stylistic or thematic...
.
Origins and definitions
Folk Music, Folk Song and
Folk DanceThe term folk dance describes a large number of dances that tend to share some or all of the following attributes:*They are dances performed at social functions by people with little or no professional training, often to traditional music or music based on traditional music.*They are not designed...
are comparatively recent expressions, being extensions of the term
Folk lore, coined in 1846 by the English antiquarian
William ThomsWilliam John Thoms was a British writer credited with coining the term "folklore" in the 1840s. Thoms's investigation of folklore and myth led to a later career of debunking longevity myths...
to describe "the traditions, customs, and superstitions of the uncultured classes." The term is further derived from the German expression
VolkThe völkisch movement is the German interpretation of the populist movement, with a romantic focus on folklore and the "organic". The term völkisch, meaning "ethnic", derives from the German word Volk , corresponding to "people", with connotations in German of "people-powered", "folksy" and...
, in the sense of "the people as a whole" as applied to popular and national music by
Johann Gottfried HerderJohann Gottfried von Herder was a German philosopher, theologian, poet, and literary critic. He is associated with the periods of Enlightenment, Sturm und Drang, and Weimar Classicism.-Biography:...
and the German Romantics over half a century earlier.
A literary interest in the popular ballad was not new: it dates back to
Thomas PercyThomas Percy , was Bishop of Dromore. Before being made bishop, he was chaplain to George III. Percy's greatest contribution is considered to be his Reliques of Ancient English Poetry , the first of the great ballad collections, which was the one work most responsible for the ballad revival in...
and
William WordsworthWilliam Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads....
. English Elizabethan and Stuart composers had often evolved their music from folk themes, the classical suite was based upon stylised folk-dances and Franz Josef Haydn's use of folk melodies is noted. But the emergence of the term "folk" coincided with an "outburst of national feeling all over Europe" that was particularly strong at the edges of Europe, where
national identitySelf-determination is defined as free choice of one’s own acts without external compulsion; and especially as the freedom of the people of a given territory to determine their own political status. In other words, it is the right of the people of a nation to decide how they want to be governed...
was most asserted. Nationalist composers emerged in Eastern Europe, Russia, Scandinavia, Spain and Britain: the music of
DvorakAntonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of Romantic music, who employed the idioms and melodies of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. His works include operas, symphonic, choral and chamber music...
,
SmetanaBedřich Smetana was a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style which became closely identified with his country's aspirations to independent statehood. He is thus widely regarded in his homeland as the father of Czech music...
,
GriegEdvard Hagerup Grieg was a Norwegian composer and pianist who composed in the Romantic period. He is best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor, for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt , and for his collection of piano miniatures Lyric...
, Rimsky-Korsakov,
BrahmsJohannes Brahms , German composer and pianist, was one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
,
LisztFranz Liszt was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist and teacher....
,
de FallaManuel de Falla y Matheu was a Spanish composer of classical music.-Biography:Manuel de Falla was born in Cádiz. His early teacher in music was his mother; at the age of 9 he was introduced to his first piano professor. Little is known of that period of his life, but his relationship with his...
,
WagnerWilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director and essayist, primarily known for his operas...
,
SibeliusJean Sibelius was a Finnish composer of the later Romantic period whose music played an important role in the formation of the Finnish national identity....
, Vaughan-Williams,
BartókBéla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist, considered to be one of the greatest composers of the 20th century, and regarded, along with Liszt, as his country's greatest composer...
and many others drew upon folk melodies. The English term "folklore", to describe traditional music and dance, entered the vocabulary of many continental European nations, each of which had its folk-song collectors and revivalists.
However, despite the assembly of an enormous body of work over some two centuries, there is still no certain definition of what folk music (or folklore, or the folk) is. Folk music may tend to have certain characteristics but it cannot clearly be differentiated in purely musical terms. One meaning often given is that of "old songs, with no known composers", another is that of music that has been submitted to an evolutionary "process of oral transmission.... the fashioning and re-fashioning of the music by the community that give it its folk character." Such definitions depend upon "(cultural) processes rather than abstract musical types...", upon "
continuity and
oral transmission...seen as characterizing one side of a cultural dichotomy, the other side of which is found not only in the lower layers of feudal, capitalist and some oriental societies but also in 'primitive' societies and in parts of 'popular cultures'."
For Scholes, as for
Cecil SharpCecil James Sharp was the founding father of the folklore revival in England in the early 20th century, and many of England's traditional dances and music owe their continuing existence to his work in recording and publishing them.-Early life:Sharp was born at Denmark Hill, London, his father was...
and
Béla BartókBéla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist, considered to be one of the greatest composers of the 20th century, and regarded, along with Liszt, as his country's greatest composer...
, there was a sense of the music of the country as distinct from that of the town. Folk music was already "seen as the authentic expression of a way of life now past or about to disappear (or in some cases, to be preserved or somehow revived)," particularly in "a community uninfluenced by art music" and by commercial and printed song. Lloyd rejected this in favour of a simple distinction of economic class yet for him too folk music was, in
Charles SeegerCharles Seeger, Jr. was a musicologist, composer, and teacher.-Life:...
's words, "associated with a lower class in societies which are culturally and socially stratified, that is, which have developed an elite, and possibly also a popular, musical culture." In these terms folk music may be seen as part of a "schema comprising four musical types: 'primitive' or 'tribal'; 'elite' or 'art'; 'folk'; and 'popular'."
Revivalists' opinions differed over the origins of folk music: it was said by some to be art music changed and probably debased by oral transmission, by others to reflect the character of the race that produced it. The competition of individual and collective theories of composition set different demarcations and relations of folk music with the music of tribal societies on the one hand and of "art" and "court" music on the other. The traditional cultures that did not rely upon written music or had less social stratification could not be readily categorised. In the proliferation of popular music genres, some music became categorised as "World music" and "Roots music".
The distinction between "authentic" folk and national and popular song in general has always been loose, particularly in America and Germany - for example popular songwriters such as
Stephen FosterStephen Collins Foster , known as the "father of American music," was the pre-eminent songwriter in the United States of the 19th century...
could be termed "folk" in America. The International Folk Music Council definition allows that the term "can also be applied to music which has originated with an individual composer and has subsequently been absorbed into the unwritten, living tradition of a community. But the term does not cover a song, dance, or tune that has been taken over ready-made and remains unchanged."
The post World War 2 folk revival in America and in Britain brought a new meaning to the word. Folk was seen as a musical style, the ethical antithesis of commercial "popular" or "pop" music, while the Victorian appeal of the "Volk" was often regarded with suspicion. The popularity of "contemporary folk" recordings caused the appearance of the category "Folk" in the
Grammy AwardThe Grammy Awards —or Grammys—are presented annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States for outstanding achievements in the music industry...
s of 1959: in 1970 the term was dropped in favour of "Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording (including Traditional Blues)", while 1987 brought a distinction between "Best Traditional Folk Recording" and "Best Contemporary Folk Recording". The term "folk", by the start of the 21st century, could cover "
singer song-writersA singer–songwriter is a musician who writes, composes and sings their own material including lyrics and melodies. They often provide the sole accompaniment to an entire composition or song, typically using a guitar or piano...
, such as
DonovanDonovan , is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music...
and
Bob DylanBob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet and painter who has been a major figure in popular music for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was, at first, an informal chronicler and then an apparently reluctant figurehead of social unrest...
, who emerged in the 1960s and much more" or perhaps even "a rejection of rigid boundaries, preferring a conception, simply of varying practice within one field, that of 'music'."
Europe and America
Celtic traditional music
Celtic musicCeltic music is a term utilised by artists, record companies, music stores and music magazines to describe a broad grouping of musical genres that evolved out of the folk musical traditions of the Celtic peoples of Western Europe...
in many cases is based on an amalgamation of
IrishThe folk music of Ireland is the generic term for music that has been created in various genres on the entire island of Ireland, North and South of the Border.-History:There are several collections of Irish folk music from the 18th century, but it was not until the 19th century...
,
ScottishScotland is internationally known for its traditional music, which has remained vibrant throughout the 20th century, when many traditional forms worldwide lost popularity to pop music...
,
ManxThe Isle of Man is a small island nation in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and Ireland. Its rich and varied culture reflects Celtic, Norse and other influences, with its neighbours, Scotland, Ireland England and Wales playing their part. The island is not part of the United Kingdom.There...
,
CornishCornwall has been historically Celtic, though Celtic-derived traditions had been moribund for some time before being revived during a late 20th century roots revival.-History:...
,
WelshWales has a strong and distinctive link with music. The country is traditionally referred to as "the land of song". This is a modern stereotype based on 19th century conceptions of Nonconformist choral music and 20th century male voice choirs, Eisteddfodau and arena singing, such as sporting events...
, Breton and other traditional musics associated with lands in which Celtic languages are or were spoken. Galician music is often included, though significant research showing that this has any close musical relationship is lacking.
BrittanySince the early 1970s, Brittany has experienced a tremendous revival of its folk music. Along with flourishing traditional forms such as the bombard-binou pair and fest-noz ensembles incorporating other additional instruments, it has also branched out into numerous sub-genres.-Traditional Breton...
's Folk revival began in the 1950s with the "bagadoù" and the "kan-ha-diskan" before growing to world fame through
Alan StivellAlan Stivell is a French and Breton musician and singer, recording artist and master of the celtic harp who from the early 1970s revived global interest in the Celtic harp and Celtic Music as part of World Music.- Background-Learning Breton Music and Culture :Alan was born in the Auvergnat town...
's work since the mid-1960s.
In
IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
,
The Clancy BrothersThe Clancy Brothers were an Irish folk music singing group, most popular in the 1960s, who are often credited with popularizing Irish traditional music in the United States. The brothers were Patrick "Paddy" Clancy, Tom Clancy, Bobby Clancy and Liam Clancy...
(although its members were all Irish-born, the group became famous while based in New York's Greenwich Village),
The DublinersThe Dubliners are an Irish folk band founded in 1962.- Formation and history :The Dubliners formed in 1962 and made a name for themselves playing regularly in O'Donoghue's Pub in Dublin. Initially known as "The Ronnie Drew Group", the founding members were Ronnie Drew, Luke Kelly, Ciaran Bourke and...
,
ClannadClannad are a Grammy Award-winning Irish musical group, from Gaoth Dobhair, County Donegal. Their music has been variously described as bordering on folk and folk rock, Irish, Celtic and New Age...
,
PlanxtyPlanxty is an Irish folk music band formed in the 1970s, consisting initially of Christy Moore , Dónal Lunny , Andy Irvine , and Liam O'Flynn...
,
The ChieftainsThe Chieftains are a Grammy-winning Irish musical group founded in 1962, best known for being one of the first bands to make Irish traditional music popular around the world.-Name:...
,
The PoguesThe Pogues are a band of mixed Irish and English background, playing traditional Irish music with influences from punk rock and jazz, formed in 1982 and fronted by Shane MacGowan. They reached international prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s, until MacGowan left the band in 1991 due to...
,
The Irish RoversThe Irish Rovers are a popular and long-running Canadian Irish folk group created in 1963 and named for the traditional song "The Irish Rover"...
, and a variety of other folk bands have done much over the past few decades to revitalise and re-popularise
Irish traditional musicThe folk music of Ireland is the generic term for music that has been created in various genres on the entire island of Ireland, North and South of the Border.-History:There are several collections of Irish folk music from the 18th century, but it was not until the 19th century...
. These bands were rooted, to a greater or lesser extent, in a living tradition of Irish music and benefited from the efforts of artists such as
Seamus EnnisSéamus Ennis was an Irish piper, singer and folk-song collector.- Early years :In 1908 James Ennis, Séamus's father, was in a pawn-shop in London. Ennis bought a bag of small pieces of Uilleann pipes. They were made in the early nineteenth century by Coyne of Thomas Street in Dublin. James worked...
and
Peter KennedyPeter Douglas Kennedy was an English collector of folk songs in the 1950s. Peter's father, Douglas, was EFDSS director after Cecil Sharp....
.
Eastern Europe and the Balkans
During the Communist era national folk dancing was actively promoted by the state.
Dance troupes from Russia and Poland toured Western Europe from about 1937 to 1990. The
Red Army ChoirThe A.V. Alexandrov Russian army twice red-bannered academic song and dance ensemble The A.V. Alexandrov Russian army twice red-bannered academic song and dance ensemble The A.V. Alexandrov Russian army twice red-bannered academic song and dance ensemble ' onMouseout='HidePop("75187")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/John_Peel">John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004. He was known for his eclectic taste in music and...
.
The Hungarian group
MuzsikásMuzsikás is a Hungarian musical group playing mainly folk music of Hungary and other countries and peoples of the region. Established in 1973, it has also played works by classical composers, especially Béla Bartók, who himself collected folk tunes...
played numerous American tours and participated in the Hollywood movie
The English PatientThe English Patient is a 1996 film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Michael Ondaatje. The film, directed by Anthony Minghella, won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture...
while the singer
Márta SebestyénMárta Sebestyén is a Hungarian folk vocalist.Sebestyén was educated at Miklós Radnóti Grammar School, Budapest. She has sung regularly and recorded with the Hungarian folk group Muzsikás...
worked with the band
Deep ForestDeep Forest is a musical group consisting of two French musicians, Michel Sanchez and Eric Mouquet. They compose a new kind of world music, sometimes called ethnic electronica, mixing ethnic with electronic sounds and dance beats or chillout beats. Their sound has been described as an...
. The Hungarian
táncházTáncház is a "casual" Hungarian folk dance event . It is an aspect of the Hungarian roots revival of traditional culture which began in the early 1970s, and remains an active part of the national culture across the country, especially in cities like Budapest...
movement, started in the 1970s, involves strong cooperation between musicology experts and enthusiastic amateurs. Hungarian folk music and folk culture still survived in rural areas, as it did also in Romania (especially Transylvania).
The movement revived broader folk traditions of music, dance, and costume together and created a new kind of music club. The movement spread to ethnic Hungarian communities around the world. Today, almost every major city in the U.S. and Australia has its own Hungarian folk music and folk dance group; there are also groups in Japan, Hong Kong, Argentina and Western Europe.
Balkan folk music was influenced by the mingling of Balkan ethnic groups in the period of
Ottoman EmpireThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
. It comprises the music of
Bosnia and HerzegovinaLike the surrounding Balkan countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina has had a turbulent past marked by frequent foreign invasions and occupation. As a result, Bosnian music is now a mixture of ethnic Bosniak, Croat, Serb, Greek , Roma , Turkish, Hungarian and Macedonian influences along with influences...
,
CroatiaThe music of Croatia, like the divisions of the country itself, has three major influences: the Mediterranean especially present in the coastal areas, of the Balkans especially in the mountainous, continental parts, and of Central Europe in the central and northern parts of the country.While both...
,
BulgariaBulgarian music is part of the Balkan tradition, which stretches across Southeastern Europe, and has its own distinctive sound. Traditional Bulgarian music has had more international success,due to the breakout international success of Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, a woman's choir that has topped...
,
GreeceThe musical legacy of Greece is as diverse as its history. Cypriot music has certain similarities to traditional Greek music, and their modern popular music scenes remain well-integrated. Today, music is still a huge part of Greek culture, even Greek American culture...
,
MontenegroThe music of Montenegro represents a mix of the country's unique musical tradition and Western musical influences.-History:In the 10th and 11th centuries a composer of religious chants was the oldest composer known from the Adriatic coast...
,
SerbiaThe Music of the Serbs and Serbia presents a variety of traditional music, which is part of the wider Balkan tradition, with its own distinctive sound and characteristics.-History:...
,
SloveniaThe music of Slovenia is closely related to Austrian, Istrian and Croatian because of its common history and Alpine and littoral culture. In the minds of many Slovenes and foreigners, Slovenian folk music means a form of polka that is still popular today, especially among expatriates and their...
,
Republic of MacedoniaMusic of the Republic of Macedonia and the Macedonians has many things in common with the music of neighbouring Balkan countries, but maintains its own distinctive sound.-Folk music:...
,
AlbaniaAlbanian music displays a variety of influences. Albanian folk music traditions differ by region, with major stylistic differences between the traditional music of the Ghegs in the north and Tosks in the south. Modern popular music has developed around the centers of Korça, Shkodër and Tirana....
,
TurkeyThe music of Turkey includes diverse elements ranging from Central Asian folk music and music from Ottoman Empire dominions such as Persian music, Balkan music and Byzantine music, as well as more modern European and American popular music influences. In turn, it has influenced these cultures...
,
Yugoslavia-Meaning:Music of Yugoslavia can mean:#Music of Kingdom of Yugoslavia .#Music of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia which includes the music of its constituent republics: Socialist Republic of Slovenia, Socialist Republic of Croatia, Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina,...
or the
State Union of Serbia and MontenegroSerbia and Montenegro was a Balkan country, recently ravaged by war that has caused widespread migration and cultural oppression. Indigenous folk music remains popular, both traditional tunes and more modern compositions...
and geographical regions such as
ThraceMusic of Thrace is the music of Thrace, a region in Southeastern Europe spread over southern Bulgaria , northeastern Greece , and European Turkey ....
. Some music is characterised by complex rhythm. An important part of the whole Balkan folk music is the music of the local Romani ethnic minority.
Notable venues
It is sometimes claimed that the earliest folk festival was the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, 1928, in Asheville, North Carolina, founded by
Bascom Lamar LunsfordBascom Lamar Lunsford was a lawyer, folklorist, and performer of traditional music from western North Carolina. He was often known by the nickname "Minstrel of the Appalachians."- Early life :...
. Sidmouth Festival began in 1954, and Cambridge Folk Festival began in 1965. The
Cambridge Folk FestivalThe Cambridge Folk Festival is an annual music festival held on the site of Cherry Hinton Hall in Cherry Hinton, one of the villages subsumed by the city of Cambridge, England. The festival is renowned for its eclectic mix of music and a wide definition of what might be considered folk. It occurs...
in
CambridgeThe city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. It is also at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen....
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
is noted for having a very wide definition of who can be invited as folk musicians. The "club tents" allow attendees to discover large numbers of unknown artists, who, for ten or 15 minutes each, present their work to the festival audience.
Folk music is still popular among some audiences today, with folk music clubs meeting to share traditional-style songs, and there are major folk music festivals in many countries, eg the
Woodford Folk FestivalThe Woodford Folk Festival is an annual music festival held near the small country town of Woodford, 70 km north of Brisbane, Australia. It is one of the biggest annual cultural events in Australia....
,
National Folk FestivalThe National Folk Festival is the name of several festivals that celebrate the folk music of a particular nation.*The Touring National Folk Festival in the US National Folk Festival...
and Port Fairy Folk Festival are amongst Australia's largest major annual events, attracting top international folk performers as well as many local artists. This includes the music of
AmericanaAmericana is an amalgam of roots music formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the American musical ethos; specifically those sounds that are merged from folk, country, rhythm & blues, rock & roll and other external influential styles...
, Naturalismo,
Bonnie "Prince" BillyWill Oldham, a.k.a. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy , is an American singer, songwriter, and actor. From 1993 to 1997 he performed and recorded under variations of the Palace name, including the Palace Brothers, Palace Songs, and Palace Music.-Music:Will Oldham is known for his "do-it-yourself punk aesthetic...
,
Devendra BanhartDevendra Banhart is an American singer-songwriter and visual artist. Banhart was born in Houston, Texas and was raised by his mother in Venezuela, until he returned to California as a teenager. He began to study at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1998, but dropped out to perform music in...
and others.
Anti-folk now has a home at the Antihootenany in the East Village, where artists like Beck, Regina Spektor, the Moldy Peaches and Nellie McKay got their starts.
Asia
Many Asian civilisations distinguish between art/court/classical styles and "folk" music, though cultures that do not depend greatly upon notation and have much anonymous art music must distinguish the two in different ways from those suggested by western scholars.
The European folk revival
The first folk revival influenced western
classical musicClassical music is the mainstream music produced in, or rooted in the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 9th century to present times...
. Such composers as
Percy GraingerGeorge Percy Grainger was an Australian-born composer, and pianist, who worked under the stage name of Percy Aldridge Grainger.-Early life and career :Percy Grainger was born in Brighton, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria...
,
Ralph Vaughan WilliamsRalph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores...
and
Béla BartókBéla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist, considered to be one of the greatest composers of the 20th century, and regarded, along with Liszt, as his country's greatest composer...
, made field recordings or transcriptions of folk singers and musicians.
In Spain Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909) produced piano works reflect his Spanish heritage, including the
Suite Iberia (1906-1909). Enrique Granados (1867-1918) composed
zarzuela, Spanish light opera, and
Danzas Españolas - Spanish Dances. Manuel de Falla (1876–1946) became interested in the
cante jondoCante jondo is a vocal style in flamenco. An unspoiled form of Andalusian folk music, the name means deep song It is generally considered that the common traditional classification of flamenco music is divided into three groups of which the deepest, most serious forms are known as cante jondo...
of Andalusian
flamencoFlamenco is a Spanish musical genre with origins in Andalusia. It can be both a musical form, known for its intricate rapid passages, and a dance characterized by audible footwork. The origins of the term are unclear...
, the influence of which can be strongly felt in many of his works, which include
Nights in the Gardens of SpainNights in the Gardens of Spain is a piece of music by the Andalusian composer Manuel de Falla ....
and
Siete canciones populares españolas ("Seven Spanish Folksongs", for voice and piano). Composers such as
Fernando SorJosep Ferran Sorts i Muntades was a Spanish guitarist and composer. He is best known for his guitar compositions, but he also composed music for opera and ballet, earning acclaim for his ballet titled Cendrillon...
and
Francisco TarregaFrancisco de Asís Tárrega y Eixea, was an influential Spanish composer and guitarist.-Biography:Tárrega was born on 21 November 1852, in Villarreal, Castellón, Spain...
established the
guitarThe guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that adapts readily to a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six strings, but four-, seven-, eight-, ten-, eleven-, twelve-, thirteen- and eighteen-string guitars also exist. The size and shape of the neck and the base of the guitar...
as Spain's national instrument. Modern Spanish Folk artists abound (Mil i Maria, Russian Red et al) modernizing whilst respecting the traditions of their forebears.
Flamenco grew in popularity through the 20th century, as did northern styles such as the Celtic music of Galicia. French classical composers, from Bizet to Ravel, also drew upon Spanish themes, and distinctive Spanish genres became universally recognised.
The folk revival of the 1950s in Britain and America
While the Romantic nationalism of the folk revival had its greatest influence on art-music, the "second folk revival" of the later 20th century brought a new genre of
popular musicPopular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres, and stands in contrast to art music, and traditional music which was disseminated orally...
with artists marketed by amplified concerts, recordings and broadcasting. The American
Woody GuthrieWoodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
collected folk music in the 1930s and 1940s and also composed his own songs, as did
Pete SeegerPeter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and a key figure in the mid-20th century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early '50s as a member of The Weavers, most notably the 1950 recording of Leadbelly's...
. In the 1930s
Jimmie RodgersJames Charles Rodgers , known as "Jimmie," was a country singer in the early 20th century known most widely for his rhythmic yodeling...
, in the 1940s
Burl IvesBurl Icle Ivanhoe Ives was an American actor, writer and folk music singer.As an actor, Ives's work included comedies, dramas and voice work in theater, television and motion pictures. A prolific recording artist, the prominent music critic John Rockwell has been quoted in the New York Times as...
and in the 1950s Seeger's group
The WeaversThe Weavers were an American folk music quartet based in the Greenwich Village area of New York City. They sang traditional folk songs from around the world, as well as blues, gospel music, children's songs, labor songs, and American ballads, selling millions of records at the height of their...
,
Harry BelafonteHarold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. , is an American musician, actor and social activist. One of the most successful popular singers in history, he was dubbed the "King of Calypso", a title which he was very reluctant to accept for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an...
,
The Kingston TrioThe Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to late 1960s. The group originated as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, and Nick Reynolds...
, and
The LimelitersThe Limeliters are a folk music group formed in July 1959 by Lou Gottlieb , Alex Hassilev , and Glenn Yarbrough . The group was active from 1959 until 1965, when they disbanded. After a hiatus of sixteen years Yarbrough, Hassilev, and Gottlieb reunited and began performing as The...
found a popularity that culminated in the
Hootenanny television series and the associated magazine
ABC-TV HootenannyLinda Solomon is an American music critic and editor. Although she has written about various aspects of popular culture, her main focus has been on folk music, blues, R&B, jazz and country music...
in 1963–1964.
Sing Out!Sing Out! is a quarterly journal of folk music and folk songs that has been published since May 1950.-Background:Sing Out! is the primary publication of the tax exempt, not-for-profit, educational corporation of the same name...
magazine helped spread both traditional and composed songs, as did folk-revival-oriented record companies.
In the 1960s, folk singers and songwriters such as
Joan BaezJoan Chandos Baez is a folk singer and songwriter known for her highly individual vocal style...
,
Bob DylanBob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet and painter who has been a major figure in popular music for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was, at first, an informal chronicler and then an apparently reluctant figurehead of social unrest...
,
Phil OchsPhilip David Ochs was a U.S. protest singer and songwriter who was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, earnest humanism, political activism, insightful and alliterative lyrics, and haunting voice...
, and
Tom PaxtonThomas Richard Paxton is an American folk singer and singer-songwriter who has been writing, performing and recording music for over forty years...
followed in
Guthrie'sWoodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
footsteps, writing "
protest musicA protest song is a song which is associated with a movement for social change and hence part of the broader category of topical songs . It may be folk, classical, or commercial in genre...
" and
topical songA topical song is a song that comments on political and/or social events. These types of songs are usually written about current events, but some of these songs remain popular long after the events discussed in them have occurred...
s and expressing support for the American Civil Rights Movement. The Canadians
Gordon LightfootGordon Meredith Lightfoot, Jr., CC, O.Ont is a Canadian singer and songwriter who has achieved international success in folk, country, and popular music...
,
Leonard CohenLeonard Norman Cohen, CC, GOQ is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often deals with the exploration of religion, isolation, sexuality and complex interpersonal relationships...
,
Bruce CockburnBruce Douglas Cockburn, OC is a Canadian folk/rock guitarist and singer-songwriter. His 29th album was released in summer 2006, and he has written songs in styles ranging from folk to jazz-influenced rock to rock and roll.-Biography:...
and
Joni MitchellJoni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, songwriter, and painter.Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Western Canada and then busking on the streets of Toronto...
were all invested with the
Order of CanadaThe Order of Canada is an honour for merit that is, within the Canadian system of honours, the highest such order administered by the Governor General-in-Council, on behalf of the Queen of Canada. Created in 1967, to coincide with the centennial of Canadian...
. Dylan's use of electric instruments helped inaugurate the genres of
folk rockFolk rock is a musical genre, combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
and
country rockCountry-rock is a musical genre formed from the fusion of rock with country music, with its country origins being initially referenced to the rockabilly music of the 1950s....
, particularly by his album
John Wesley HardingJohn Wesley Harding may refer to:* John Wesley Harding , a 1967 Bob Dylan album* John Wesley Harding , English singer...
and his support for the music of
The BandThe Band was a rock music group active from 1967 to 1976 and again from 1983 to 1999. The original group consisted of four Canadians: Robbie Robertson ; Richard Manuel ; Garth Hudson ; and Rick Danko , and...
. Many of the
acid rockAcid rock is a form of psychedelic rock, which is characterized with long instrumental solos, few lyrics and musical improvisation. Tom Wolfe describes the LSD-influenced music of The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Doors, Iron Butterfly, Big Brother & The Holding Company, Cream, Jefferson Airplane,...
bands of San Francisco began by playing acoustic folk and blues.
In 1950
Alan LomaxAlan Lomax was an American folklorist and ethnomusicologist. He was one of the great field collectors of folk music of the 20th century, recording thousands of songs in the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, the West Indies, Italy, and Spain.-Biography:Lomax was the son of pioneering...
came to
BritainThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
and met A.L.'Bert' Lloyd and
Ewan MacCollEwan MacColl was an English/Scottish folk singer, songwriter, socialist, actor, poet, playwright, and record producer...
, a meeting credited as inaugurating the second British folk revival. In London the colleagues opened The Ballads and Blues Club, eventually renamed the Singers' Club, possibly the first folk club: it closed in 1991. As the 1950s progressed into the 1960s, the folk revival movement built up in both Britain and America.
In the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
, the folk revival fostered young artists like
Martin CarthyMartin Carthy MBE is an English folk singer and guitarist who has remained one of the most influential figures in British traditional music, inspiring contemporaries such as Bob Dylan and Paul Simon and later artists such as Richard Thompson since he emerged as a young musician in the early days of...
and
Roy BaileyRoy Bailey , is a British socialist folk singer. Roy began his singing career in a skiffle group in 1958.Colin Irwin from the music magazine Mojo said Bailey represents "the very soul of folk's working class ideals.....
and a generation of singer-songwriters such as
Bert JanschHerbert Jansch , known as Bert Jansch, is a Scottish folk musician and founding member of the band Pentangle. He was born in Glasgow and, in the 1960s, he was heavily influenced by the guitarist Davey Graham and folk singers such as Anne Briggs...
,
Ralph McTellRalph McTell is an English singer-songwriter and acoustic guitar player who has been an influential figure on the UK folk music scene since the 1960s....
,
DonovanDonovan , is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music...
and
Roy HarperRoy Harper , is an English rock / folk singer-songwriter / guitarist who has been a professional musician since the mid 1960s. Harper has admitted being influenced by many forms of music, ranging from Miles Davis to Indian Raga to Stravinsky...
. Bob Dylan,
Paul SimonPaul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter. He entered the public consciousness in 1965 as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, along with longtime artistic partner Art Garfunkel. Simon solely wrote most of duo's songs, including such memorable songs as "The Sound of Silence", "The Boxer",...
and Tom Paxton visited Britain for some time in the early 1960s, the first two, particularly, making later use of the traditional English material they heard.
The late 1960s saw the advent of
electric folkElectric folk is the name given to the form of folk rock pioneered in England from the late 1960s, and most significant in the 1970s, which then was taken up and developed in the surrounding Celtic cultures of Brittany, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man, to produce Celtic rock and its...
groups, a key moment being the release of
Fairport ConventionFairport Convention are an English folk rock and later electric folk band, formed in 1967 who are still recording and touring today. They are widely regarded as the most important single group in the English folk rock movement...
's album Liege and Lief. Guitarist Richard Thompson declared that the music of The Band demanded a corresponding "English Electric" style, while bassist
Ashley HutchingsAshley Hutchings is a bassist, vocalist, songwriter, arranger, band leader, writer and record producer. He was a founder member of the three most significant English folk-rock bands in the history of the genre, Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span and The Albion Band; he has overseen numerous other...
formed
Steeleye SpanSteeleye Span is a British electric folk band, formed in 1969 and remaining active today. Along with Fairport Convention they are amongst the best known acts of the British folk revival, and were among the most commercially successful, thanks to their hit singles "Gaudete" and "All Around My Hat"....
in order to pursue a wholly traditional repertoire. In the second half of the 1990s, once more, folk music made an impact on the mainstream music via a younger generation of artists such as
Eliza CarthyEliza Carthy , is an English folk musician known for both singing and playing fiddle. She is the daughter of English folk musicians singer/guitarist Martin Carthy and singer Norma Waterson....
,
Kate RusbyKate Anna Rusby , is an English folk singer and songwriter from Penistone, South Yorkshire. Sometimes known as The Barnsley Nightingale, she has headlined various British national folk festivals, and is regarded as one of the most famous English folk singers of contemporary times...
and
Spiers and BodenSpiers and Boden are an English folk duo. John Spiers plays melodeon, concertina and other squeezeboxes, while Jon Boden plays fiddle, sings, and stamps out the rhythm on a piece of board.-Biography:...
.
Popular folk subgenres
- Contemporary country music
Country music is a blend of popular musical forms originally found in the Southern United States and the Appalachian Mountains...
descends ultimately from a rural American folk tradition, but has evolved. Bluegrass musicBluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and is a sub-genre of country music. It has roots in Irish, West African, Scottish, Welsh and English traditional music. Bluegrass was inspired by the music of immigrants from the United Kingdom and Ireland , and African-Americans, particularly...
is a professional development of American old time music, intermixed with bluesBlues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre created within the African-American communities in the Deep South of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
and jazzJazz is a musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
.
- Exponents of electric folk
Electric folk is the name given to the form of folk rock pioneered in England from the late 1960s, and most significant in the 1970s, which then was taken up and developed in the surrounding Celtic cultures of Brittany, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man, to produce Celtic rock and its...
music such as Fairport ConventionFairport Convention are an English folk rock and later electric folk band, formed in 1967 who are still recording and touring today. They are widely regarded as the most important single group in the English folk rock movement...
, PentanglePentangle are a British folk rock band with some jazz influences. The original band were active in the late 1960s and early 1970s and a later version have been active since the early 1980s...
, Alan StivellAlan Stivell is a French and Breton musician and singer, recording artist and master of the celtic harp who from the early 1970s revived global interest in the Celtic harp and Celtic Music as part of World Music.- Background-Learning Breton Music and Culture :Alan was born in the Auvergnat town...
, Mr. FoxMr Fox were an early 1970s electric folk or folk rock band. They were seen as in the ‘second generation’ of electric folk performers and for a time were compared with Steeleye Span and Sandy Denny’s Fotheringay. Unlike Steeleye Span they mainly wrote their own material in a traditional style and...
and Steeleye SpanSteeleye Span is a British electric folk band, formed in 1969 and remaining active today. Along with Fairport Convention they are amongst the best known acts of the British folk revival, and were among the most commercially successful, thanks to their hit singles "Gaudete" and "All Around My Hat"....
saw electrification of traditional musical forms as a means to reach a far wider audience.
- Traditional folk music merged with rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States after World War II in the late 1940s, from a combination of the rhythms of the blues, from the African American culture, and from America's country music and gospel music scenes...
to form folk rockFolk rock is a musical genre, combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
performers such as The ByrdsThe Byrds were an American rock and roll band. Formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964, The Byrds underwent several personnel changes, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973....
, Simon & Garfunkel and The Mamas & the PapasThe Mamas & the Papas were a vocal group of the 1960s. The group recorded and performed from 1965 to 1968 with a short reunion in 1971, releasing five albums and 11 Top 40 hit singles...
. Since the 1970s a genre of "contemporary folk" fueled by new singer-songwriters has continued with such artists as Chris CastleChris Castle is a folk/Americana singer-songwriter. Cleveland Magazine has described his writing as an "authentic connection to the world-weary soul of American roots music"., while The New London Day's Rick Koster calls Castle "a visionary songwriter"..-Early life:Born in Sandusky, Ohio in 1976,...
, Steve GoodmanSteve Goodman was an American folk music singer-songwriter from Chicago, Illinois. The writer of "City of New Orleans", made popular by Arlo Guthrie, Goodman won two Grammy Awards.-Personal life:...
, and John PrineJohn Prine is an American country/folk singer-songwriter. He has been active as a recording artist and live performer since the early 1970s.-Biography:...
. The PoguesThe Pogues are a band of mixed Irish and English background, playing traditional Irish music with influences from punk rock and jazz, formed in 1982 and fronted by Shane MacGowan. They reached international prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s, until MacGowan left the band in 1991 due to...
and Ireland's The CorrsThe Corrs are a Celtic folk rock group from Dundalk, Ireland. The group consists of the Corr siblings: Andrea ; Sharon ; Caroline ; and Jim ....
brought traditional tunes back into the albumAn album or record album is a collection of related audio or music tracks distributed to the public. The most common way is through commercial distribution, although smaller artists will often distribute directly to the public by selling their albums at live concerts or on their websites.-...
charts.
- In the 1980s artists like Phranc
Phranc is an American singer-songwriter whose career has spanned several decades.-Biography:She began her performing career in the late 1970s and early 1980s punk scene in Los Angeles...
and The KnittersThe Knitters are a Los Angeles-based band who play country, rockabilly and folk music. At the time of their formation they were pioneers of country punk, cowpunk or folk punk, the genre which gradually evolved into alternative country...
propagated cowpunkCowpunk or Country punk is a subgenre of punk rock that began in Southern California in the 1980s, especially Los Angeles. It combines punk rock with country music, folk music, and blues in sound, subject matter, attitude, and style. It grew directly out of the city's strong roots in both country...
or folk punkFolk punk , is a fusion of folk music and punk rock. It was pioneered by the London-based Irish band The Pogues in the 1980s...
, which eventually evolved into alt country. More recently the same spirit has been embraced and expanded on by performers such as Dave AlvinDave Alvin , is a guitarist, singer and songwriter.- Early musical influences :Dave and his older brother Phil grew up in a music-loving family in Downey, California...
, Miranda StoneMiranda Stone is a Canadian singer-songwriter originating from the Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario region and currently based in Toronto where she operates independent record label Earthdress Productions....
and Steve EarleStephen 'Steve' Fain Earle is an American singer-songwriter known for his rock and country music as well as his political views. He is also a published writer, a political activist and has written and directed a play...
.
- Hard rock
Hard rock or heavy rock is a sub-genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage and psychedelic rock and is considerably harder than conventional rock music...
and heavy metalHeavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in England and the United States...
bands such as KorpiklaaniKorpiklaani is a folk metal band from Finland who were formerly known as Shaman. The name Korpiklaani means "Forest Clan" in the Finnish language.-Biography:...
, SkycladSkyclad are a British heavy metal band with heavy folk influences in their music. They are considered one of the pioneers of folk metal. The etymology behind the term "skyclad" comes from a pagan/wiccan term for ritual nudity, in which rituals are performed with the participants metaphorically clad...
, WaylanderWaylander is an Irish band influential in the realms of Celtic folk metal. Formed in 1993, the band blends traditional Irish folk with 1990s heavy metal.-Biography:...
and FinntrollFinntroll is an extreme metal & folk metal band from Finland. They combine elements of black metal, death metal, and folk metal with Finnish polka, called humppa. Finntroll's lyrics are in Swedish, one of Finland's two national languages, because "Swedish just sounds damn trollish", according to...
meld elements from a wide variety of traditions, including in many cases instruments such as fiddles, tin whistleThe tin whistle, also called the tinwhistle, whistle, penny whistle , Irish whistle, feadóg, or feadóg stáin is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is an end blown fipple flute, putting it in the same category as the flageolet, recorder, Native American flute, and other woodwind instruments...
s, accordions and bagpipesBagpipes are a class of musical instrument, aerophones using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. Though the Scottish Great Highland Bagpipe and Irish uilleann pipes have the greatest international visibility, bagpipes of several varieties can be found in use...
. Folk metalFolk metal is a sub-genre of heavy metal music that developed in Europe during the 1990s. As the name suggests, the genre is a fusion of heavy metal with traditional folk music. This includes the widespread use of folk instruments and, to a lesser extent, traditional singing styles.The earliest...
often favours paganPaganism is a word with several different meanings.In its broadest definition, pagan denotes all non-Abrahamic religions, that is to say it denotes all religions other than Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.Other usages are:*Paganism may mean Polytheism: The group so defined includes most of the...
inspired themes. Black metalBlack metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It often employs fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, double-kick drumming, and unconventional song structure....
and viking metalViking metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music characterised by its galloping pace, keyboard-rich anthemic sound, bleakness and dramatic emphasis on Norse mythology, Norse paganism, and the Viking Age.-Characteristics:...
are defined on their folk stance, incorporating folk interludes into albums (eg, Bergtatt and KveldssangerKveldssanger is the second album by Norwegian band Ulver.The album is quite different from the band's previous offering Bergtatt in that the band's vocalist, Garm, only uses choir-like chanting instead of the usual harsh black metal vocals...
, the first two albums by once-black metal, now-experimentalExperimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-twentieth century, particularly in North America, and whose most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
band UlverUlver is a musical trio from Norway. Since their first, folklore-influenced black metal release entitled Bergtatt - Et eeventyr i 5 capitler , Ulver’s musical style has been fluid and increasingly eclectic, blending genres such as avant-garde rock, trip hop, symphonic and chamber traditions, noise...
). Other subgenres include.
- Indie folk
Indie folk is a music genre that arose in the 1990s from singer/songwriters in the indie rock community showing heavy influences from folk music scenes of the 50's, 60's and early 70's. A few early artists included Beck, Elliott Smith and Lou Barlow. This genre is often closely related to others...
- Techno-folk
Techno-folk is a music genre that combines elements of folk music and techno music.Such definition of musical style of techno folk is given by the founder of this style composer Sasha Lans : techno folk is a style in music, combining melodies and harmonies, characteristic for any nation, a...
- Industrial folk music
Industrial folk music, industrial folk song or industrial work song is a subgenre of folk or traditional music that developed from the eighteenth century, particularly in Britain and North America, with songs dealing with the lives and experiences of industrial workers.-Origins:Industrial folk song...
- Filk music
Filk is a musical culture, genre, and community tied to science fiction/fantasy fandom and a type of fan labor. The genre has been active since the early 1950s, and played primarily since the mid-1970s...
can be considered folk music stylistically and culturally (though the 'community' it arose from, science fiction fandomScience fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community of people actively interested in science fiction and fantasy literature, and in contact with one another based upon that interest...
, is an unusual and thoroughly modern one).
- Neofolk
Neofolk is a form of folk music-inspired experimental music that emerged from post-industrial music circles. Neofolk can either be solely acoustic folk music or a blend of acoustic folk instrumentation aided by varieties of accompanying sounds such as pianos, strings and elements of industrial...
began in the 1980s, fusing traditional European folk music with post-industrial music, historical topics, philosophical commentary, traditional songs and paganismPaganism is a word with several different meanings.In its broadest definition, pagan denotes all non-Abrahamic religions, that is to say it denotes all religions other than Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.Other usages are:*Paganism may mean Polytheism: The group so defined includes most of the...
. The genre is largely European.
- Anti folk, began in New York City in the 1980s by Lach
Lach is a musician associated with the anti-folk movement. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he was trained as a classical pianist from an early age only to abandon it once he heard The Sex Pistols, The Jam and The Clash for the first time. Realizing he was a songwriter, Lach backtracked and explored...
in response to the "confined" American folk music revivalThe American folk music revival was a phenomenon in the United States in the 1950s to mid-1960s. Its roots went earlier, of course, since traditional folk music has thousands of years of history, and performers like Burl Ives, Woody Guthrie, and Cisco Houston had enjoyed a limited general...
.
- Folk punk
Folk punk , is a fusion of folk music and punk rock. It was pioneered by the London-based Irish band The Pogues in the 1980s...
, (known in its early days as rogue folk), is a fusion of folk music and punk rock. It was pioneered by the London-based Irish band The Pogues in the 1980s.
Media
Further reading
- Anon. (2003) Lamentations chez les nomades bakhtiari d'Iran. Paris:.
- Bayard, Samuel Preston (1950). "Prolegomena to a Study of the Principal Melodic Families of British-American Folksong", Journal of American Folklore
The term
folk music originated in the 19th century as a term for musical
folkloreFolklore is the body of expressive culture, including stories, music, dance, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, customs, and so forth within a particular population comprising the traditions of that culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which...
. It has been defined in several ways; as music transmitted by word of mouth, music of the lower classes, music with no known composer. It has been contrasted with commercial and classical styles.
Since the middle of the 20th century the term has also been used to describe a kind of
popular musicPopular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres, and stands in contrast to art music, and traditional music which was disseminated orally...
that is based on traditional music. Subgenres include
folk rockFolk rock is a musical genre, combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
,
electric folkElectric folk is the name given to the form of folk rock pioneered in England from the late 1960s, and most significant in the 1970s, which then was taken up and developed in the surrounding Celtic cultures of Brittany, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man, to produce Celtic rock and its...
,
folk metalFolk metal is a sub-genre of heavy metal music that developed in Europe during the 1990s. As the name suggests, the genre is a fusion of heavy metal with traditional folk music. This includes the widespread use of folk instruments and, to a lesser extent, traditional singing styles.The earliest...
and
progressive folk musicProgressive folk or prog folk was originally a type of American folk music that pursued a progressive political agenda, but in the United Kingdom the term became attached to a sub-genre that rejects or de-emphasizes the conventions of traditional folk music and encourages stylistic or thematic...
.
Origins and definitions
Folk Music, Folk Song and
Folk DanceThe term folk dance describes a large number of dances that tend to share some or all of the following attributes:*They are dances performed at social functions by people with little or no professional training, often to traditional music or music based on traditional music.*They are not designed...
are comparatively recent expressions, being extensions of the term
Folk lore, coined in 1846 by the English antiquarian
William ThomsWilliam John Thoms was a British writer credited with coining the term "folklore" in the 1840s. Thoms's investigation of folklore and myth led to a later career of debunking longevity myths...
to describe "the traditions, customs, and superstitions of the uncultured classes." The term is further derived from the German expression
VolkThe völkisch movement is the German interpretation of the populist movement, with a romantic focus on folklore and the "organic". The term völkisch, meaning "ethnic", derives from the German word Volk , corresponding to "people", with connotations in German of "people-powered", "folksy" and...
, in the sense of "the people as a whole" as applied to popular and national music by
Johann Gottfried HerderJohann Gottfried von Herder was a German philosopher, theologian, poet, and literary critic. He is associated with the periods of Enlightenment, Sturm und Drang, and Weimar Classicism.-Biography:...
and the German Romantics over half a century earlier.
A literary interest in the popular ballad was not new: it dates back to
Thomas PercyThomas Percy , was Bishop of Dromore. Before being made bishop, he was chaplain to George III. Percy's greatest contribution is considered to be his Reliques of Ancient English Poetry , the first of the great ballad collections, which was the one work most responsible for the ballad revival in...
and
William WordsworthWilliam Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads....
. English Elizabethan and Stuart composers had often evolved their music from folk themes, the classical suite was based upon stylised folk-dances and Franz Josef Haydn's use of folk melodies is noted. But the emergence of the term "folk" coincided with an "outburst of national feeling all over Europe" that was particularly strong at the edges of Europe, where
national identitySelf-determination is defined as free choice of one’s own acts without external compulsion; and especially as the freedom of the people of a given territory to determine their own political status. In other words, it is the right of the people of a nation to decide how they want to be governed...
was most asserted. Nationalist composers emerged in Eastern Europe, Russia, Scandinavia, Spain and Britain: the music of
DvorakAntonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of Romantic music, who employed the idioms and melodies of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. His works include operas, symphonic, choral and chamber music...
,
SmetanaBedřich Smetana was a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style which became closely identified with his country's aspirations to independent statehood. He is thus widely regarded in his homeland as the father of Czech music...
,
GriegEdvard Hagerup Grieg was a Norwegian composer and pianist who composed in the Romantic period. He is best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor, for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt , and for his collection of piano miniatures Lyric...
, Rimsky-Korsakov,
BrahmsJohannes Brahms , German composer and pianist, was one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
,
LisztFranz Liszt was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist and teacher....
,
de FallaManuel de Falla y Matheu was a Spanish composer of classical music.-Biography:Manuel de Falla was born in Cádiz. His early teacher in music was his mother; at the age of 9 he was introduced to his first piano professor. Little is known of that period of his life, but his relationship with his...
,
WagnerWilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director and essayist, primarily known for his operas...
,
SibeliusJean Sibelius was a Finnish composer of the later Romantic period whose music played an important role in the formation of the Finnish national identity....
, Vaughan-Williams,
BartókBéla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist, considered to be one of the greatest composers of the 20th century, and regarded, along with Liszt, as his country's greatest composer...
and many others drew upon folk melodies. The English term "folklore", to describe traditional music and dance, entered the vocabulary of many continental European nations, each of which had its folk-song collectors and revivalists.
However, despite the assembly of an enormous body of work over some two centuries, there is still no certain definition of what folk music (or folklore, or the folk) is. Folk music may tend to have certain characteristics but it cannot clearly be differentiated in purely musical terms. One meaning often given is that of "old songs, with no known composers", another is that of music that has been submitted to an evolutionary "process of oral transmission.... the fashioning and re-fashioning of the music by the community that give it its folk character." Such definitions depend upon "(cultural) processes rather than abstract musical types...", upon "
continuity and
oral transmission...seen as characterizing one side of a cultural dichotomy, the other side of which is found not only in the lower layers of feudal, capitalist and some oriental societies but also in 'primitive' societies and in parts of 'popular cultures'."
For Scholes, as for
Cecil SharpCecil James Sharp was the founding father of the folklore revival in England in the early 20th century, and many of England's traditional dances and music owe their continuing existence to his work in recording and publishing them.-Early life:Sharp was born at Denmark Hill, London, his father was...
and
Béla BartókBéla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist, considered to be one of the greatest composers of the 20th century, and regarded, along with Liszt, as his country's greatest composer...
, there was a sense of the music of the country as distinct from that of the town. Folk music was already "seen as the authentic expression of a way of life now past or about to disappear (or in some cases, to be preserved or somehow revived)," particularly in "a community uninfluenced by art music" and by commercial and printed song. Lloyd rejected this in favour of a simple distinction of economic class yet for him too folk music was, in
Charles SeegerCharles Seeger, Jr. was a musicologist, composer, and teacher.-Life:...
's words, "associated with a lower class in societies which are culturally and socially stratified, that is, which have developed an elite, and possibly also a popular, musical culture." In these terms folk music may be seen as part of a "schema comprising four musical types: 'primitive' or 'tribal'; 'elite' or 'art'; 'folk'; and 'popular'."
Revivalists' opinions differed over the origins of folk music: it was said by some to be art music changed and probably debased by oral transmission, by others to reflect the character of the race that produced it. The competition of individual and collective theories of composition set different demarcations and relations of folk music with the music of tribal societies on the one hand and of "art" and "court" music on the other. The traditional cultures that did not rely upon written music or had less social stratification could not be readily categorised. In the proliferation of popular music genres, some music became categorised as "World music" and "Roots music".
The distinction between "authentic" folk and national and popular song in general has always been loose, particularly in America and Germany - for example popular songwriters such as
Stephen FosterStephen Collins Foster , known as the "father of American music," was the pre-eminent songwriter in the United States of the 19th century...
could be termed "folk" in America. The International Folk Music Council definition allows that the term "can also be applied to music which has originated with an individual composer and has subsequently been absorbed into the unwritten, living tradition of a community. But the term does not cover a song, dance, or tune that has been taken over ready-made and remains unchanged."
The post World War 2 folk revival in America and in Britain brought a new meaning to the word. Folk was seen as a musical style, the ethical antithesis of commercial "popular" or "pop" music, while the Victorian appeal of the "Volk" was often regarded with suspicion. The popularity of "contemporary folk" recordings caused the appearance of the category "Folk" in the
Grammy AwardThe Grammy Awards —or Grammys—are presented annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States for outstanding achievements in the music industry...
s of 1959: in 1970 the term was dropped in favour of "Best Ethnic or Traditional Recording (including Traditional Blues)", while 1987 brought a distinction between "Best Traditional Folk Recording" and "Best Contemporary Folk Recording". The term "folk", by the start of the 21st century, could cover "
singer song-writersA singer–songwriter is a musician who writes, composes and sings their own material including lyrics and melodies. They often provide the sole accompaniment to an entire composition or song, typically using a guitar or piano...
, such as
DonovanDonovan , is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music...
and
Bob DylanBob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet and painter who has been a major figure in popular music for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was, at first, an informal chronicler and then an apparently reluctant figurehead of social unrest...
, who emerged in the 1960s and much more" or perhaps even "a rejection of rigid boundaries, preferring a conception, simply of varying practice within one field, that of 'music'."
Europe and America
Celtic traditional music
Celtic musicCeltic music is a term utilised by artists, record companies, music stores and music magazines to describe a broad grouping of musical genres that evolved out of the folk musical traditions of the Celtic peoples of Western Europe...
in many cases is based on an amalgamation of
IrishThe folk music of Ireland is the generic term for music that has been created in various genres on the entire island of Ireland, North and South of the Border.-History:There are several collections of Irish folk music from the 18th century, but it was not until the 19th century...
,
ScottishScotland is internationally known for its traditional music, which has remained vibrant throughout the 20th century, when many traditional forms worldwide lost popularity to pop music...
,
ManxThe Isle of Man is a small island nation in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and Ireland. Its rich and varied culture reflects Celtic, Norse and other influences, with its neighbours, Scotland, Ireland England and Wales playing their part. The island is not part of the United Kingdom.There...
,
CornishCornwall has been historically Celtic, though Celtic-derived traditions had been moribund for some time before being revived during a late 20th century roots revival.-History:...
,
WelshWales has a strong and distinctive link with music. The country is traditionally referred to as "the land of song". This is a modern stereotype based on 19th century conceptions of Nonconformist choral music and 20th century male voice choirs, Eisteddfodau and arena singing, such as sporting events...
, Breton and other traditional musics associated with lands in which Celtic languages are or were spoken. Galician music is often included, though significant research showing that this has any close musical relationship is lacking.
BrittanySince the early 1970s, Brittany has experienced a tremendous revival of its folk music. Along with flourishing traditional forms such as the bombard-binou pair and fest-noz ensembles incorporating other additional instruments, it has also branched out into numerous sub-genres.-Traditional Breton...
's Folk revival began in the 1950s with the "bagadoù" and the "kan-ha-diskan" before growing to world fame through
Alan StivellAlan Stivell is a French and Breton musician and singer, recording artist and master of the celtic harp who from the early 1970s revived global interest in the Celtic harp and Celtic Music as part of World Music.- Background-Learning Breton Music and Culture :Alan was born in the Auvergnat town...
's work since the mid-1960s.
In
IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
,
The Clancy BrothersThe Clancy Brothers were an Irish folk music singing group, most popular in the 1960s, who are often credited with popularizing Irish traditional music in the United States. The brothers were Patrick "Paddy" Clancy, Tom Clancy, Bobby Clancy and Liam Clancy...
(although its members were all Irish-born, the group became famous while based in New York's Greenwich Village),
The DublinersThe Dubliners are an Irish folk band founded in 1962.- Formation and history :The Dubliners formed in 1962 and made a name for themselves playing regularly in O'Donoghue's Pub in Dublin. Initially known as "The Ronnie Drew Group", the founding members were Ronnie Drew, Luke Kelly, Ciaran Bourke and...
,
ClannadClannad are a Grammy Award-winning Irish musical group, from Gaoth Dobhair, County Donegal. Their music has been variously described as bordering on folk and folk rock, Irish, Celtic and New Age...
,
PlanxtyPlanxty is an Irish folk music band formed in the 1970s, consisting initially of Christy Moore , Dónal Lunny , Andy Irvine , and Liam O'Flynn...
,
The ChieftainsThe Chieftains are a Grammy-winning Irish musical group founded in 1962, best known for being one of the first bands to make Irish traditional music popular around the world.-Name:...
,
The PoguesThe Pogues are a band of mixed Irish and English background, playing traditional Irish music with influences from punk rock and jazz, formed in 1982 and fronted by Shane MacGowan. They reached international prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s, until MacGowan left the band in 1991 due to...
,
The Irish RoversThe Irish Rovers are a popular and long-running Canadian Irish folk group created in 1963 and named for the traditional song "The Irish Rover"...
, and a variety of other folk bands have done much over the past few decades to revitalise and re-popularise
Irish traditional musicThe folk music of Ireland is the generic term for music that has been created in various genres on the entire island of Ireland, North and South of the Border.-History:There are several collections of Irish folk music from the 18th century, but it was not until the 19th century...
. These bands were rooted, to a greater or lesser extent, in a living tradition of Irish music and benefited from the efforts of artists such as
Seamus EnnisSéamus Ennis was an Irish piper, singer and folk-song collector.- Early years :In 1908 James Ennis, Séamus's father, was in a pawn-shop in London. Ennis bought a bag of small pieces of Uilleann pipes. They were made in the early nineteenth century by Coyne of Thomas Street in Dublin. James worked...
and
Peter KennedyPeter Douglas Kennedy was an English collector of folk songs in the 1950s. Peter's father, Douglas, was EFDSS director after Cecil Sharp....
.
Eastern Europe and the Balkans
During the Communist era national folk dancing was actively promoted by the state.
Dance troupes from Russia and Poland toured Western Europe from about 1937 to 1990. The
Red Army ChoirThe A.V. Alexandrov Russian army twice red-bannered academic song and dance ensemble The A.V. Alexandrov Russian army twice red-bannered academic song and dance ensemble The A.V. Alexandrov Russian army twice red-bannered academic song and dance ensemble ' onMouseout='HidePop("55619")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/John_Peel">John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004. He was known for his eclectic taste in music and...
.
The Hungarian group
MuzsikásMuzsikás is a Hungarian musical group playing mainly folk music of Hungary and other countries and peoples of the region. Established in 1973, it has also played works by classical composers, especially Béla Bartók, who himself collected folk tunes...
played numerous American tours and participated in the Hollywood movie
The English PatientThe English Patient is a 1996 film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Michael Ondaatje. The film, directed by Anthony Minghella, won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture...
while the singer
Márta SebestyénMárta Sebestyén is a Hungarian folk vocalist.Sebestyén was educated at Miklós Radnóti Grammar School, Budapest. She has sung regularly and recorded with the Hungarian folk group Muzsikás...
worked with the band
Deep ForestDeep Forest is a musical group consisting of two French musicians, Michel Sanchez and Eric Mouquet. They compose a new kind of world music, sometimes called ethnic electronica, mixing ethnic with electronic sounds and dance beats or chillout beats. Their sound has been described as an...
. The Hungarian
táncházTáncház is a "casual" Hungarian folk dance event . It is an aspect of the Hungarian roots revival of traditional culture which began in the early 1970s, and remains an active part of the national culture across the country, especially in cities like Budapest...
movement, started in the 1970s, involves strong cooperation between musicology experts and enthusiastic amateurs. Hungarian folk music and folk culture still survived in rural areas, as it did also in Romania (especially Transylvania).
The movement revived broader folk traditions of music, dance, and costume together and created a new kind of music club. The movement spread to ethnic Hungarian communities around the world. Today, almost every major city in the U.S. and Australia has its own Hungarian folk music and folk dance group; there are also groups in Japan, Hong Kong, Argentina and Western Europe.
Balkan folk music was influenced by the mingling of Balkan ethnic groups in the period of
Ottoman EmpireThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
. It comprises the music of
Bosnia and HerzegovinaLike the surrounding Balkan countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina has had a turbulent past marked by frequent foreign invasions and occupation. As a result, Bosnian music is now a mixture of ethnic Bosniak, Croat, Serb, Greek , Roma , Turkish, Hungarian and Macedonian influences along with influences...
,
CroatiaThe music of Croatia, like the divisions of the country itself, has three major influences: the Mediterranean especially present in the coastal areas, of the Balkans especially in the mountainous, continental parts, and of Central Europe in the central and northern parts of the country.While both...
,
BulgariaBulgarian music is part of the Balkan tradition, which stretches across Southeastern Europe, and has its own distinctive sound. Traditional Bulgarian music has had more international success,due to the breakout international success of Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, a woman's choir that has topped...
,
GreeceThe musical legacy of Greece is as diverse as its history. Cypriot music has certain similarities to traditional Greek music, and their modern popular music scenes remain well-integrated. Today, music is still a huge part of Greek culture, even Greek American culture...
,
MontenegroThe music of Montenegro represents a mix of the country's unique musical tradition and Western musical influences.-History:In the 10th and 11th centuries a composer of religious chants was the oldest composer known from the Adriatic coast...
,
SerbiaThe Music of the Serbs and Serbia presents a variety of traditional music, which is part of the wider Balkan tradition, with its own distinctive sound and characteristics.-History:...
,
SloveniaThe music of Slovenia is closely related to Austrian, Istrian and Croatian because of its common history and Alpine and littoral culture. In the minds of many Slovenes and foreigners, Slovenian folk music means a form of polka that is still popular today, especially among expatriates and their...
,
Republic of MacedoniaMusic of the Republic of Macedonia and the Macedonians has many things in common with the music of neighbouring Balkan countries, but maintains its own distinctive sound.-Folk music:...
,
AlbaniaAlbanian music displays a variety of influences. Albanian folk music traditions differ by region, with major stylistic differences between the traditional music of the Ghegs in the north and Tosks in the south. Modern popular music has developed around the centers of Korça, Shkodër and Tirana....
,
TurkeyThe music of Turkey includes diverse elements ranging from Central Asian folk music and music from Ottoman Empire dominions such as Persian music, Balkan music and Byzantine music, as well as more modern European and American popular music influences. In turn, it has influenced these cultures...
,
Yugoslavia-Meaning:Music of Yugoslavia can mean:#Music of Kingdom of Yugoslavia .#Music of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia which includes the music of its constituent republics: Socialist Republic of Slovenia, Socialist Republic of Croatia, Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina,...
or the
State Union of Serbia and MontenegroSerbia and Montenegro was a Balkan country, recently ravaged by war that has caused widespread migration and cultural oppression. Indigenous folk music remains popular, both traditional tunes and more modern compositions...
and geographical regions such as
ThraceMusic of Thrace is the music of Thrace, a region in Southeastern Europe spread over southern Bulgaria , northeastern Greece , and European Turkey ....
. Some music is characterised by complex rhythm. An important part of the whole Balkan folk music is the music of the local Romani ethnic minority.
Notable venues
It is sometimes claimed that the earliest folk festival was the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, 1928, in Asheville, North Carolina, founded by
Bascom Lamar LunsfordBascom Lamar Lunsford was a lawyer, folklorist, and performer of traditional music from western North Carolina. He was often known by the nickname "Minstrel of the Appalachians."- Early life :...
. Sidmouth Festival began in 1954, and Cambridge Folk Festival began in 1965. The
Cambridge Folk FestivalThe Cambridge Folk Festival is an annual music festival held on the site of Cherry Hinton Hall in Cherry Hinton, one of the villages subsumed by the city of Cambridge, England. The festival is renowned for its eclectic mix of music and a wide definition of what might be considered folk. It occurs...
in
CambridgeThe city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. It is also at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen....
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
is noted for having a very wide definition of who can be invited as folk musicians. The "club tents" allow attendees to discover large numbers of unknown artists, who, for ten or 15 minutes each, present their work to the festival audience.
Folk music is still popular among some audiences today, with folk music clubs meeting to share traditional-style songs, and there are major folk music festivals in many countries, eg the
Woodford Folk FestivalThe Woodford Folk Festival is an annual music festival held near the small country town of Woodford, 70 km north of Brisbane, Australia. It is one of the biggest annual cultural events in Australia....
,
National Folk FestivalThe National Folk Festival is the name of several festivals that celebrate the folk music of a particular nation.*The Touring National Folk Festival in the US National Folk Festival...
and Port Fairy Folk Festival are amongst Australia's largest major annual events, attracting top international folk performers as well as many local artists. This includes the music of
AmericanaAmericana is an amalgam of roots music formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the American musical ethos; specifically those sounds that are merged from folk, country, rhythm & blues, rock & roll and other external influential styles...
, Naturalismo,
Bonnie "Prince" BillyWill Oldham, a.k.a. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy , is an American singer, songwriter, and actor. From 1993 to 1997 he performed and recorded under variations of the Palace name, including the Palace Brothers, Palace Songs, and Palace Music.-Music:Will Oldham is known for his "do-it-yourself punk aesthetic...
,
Devendra BanhartDevendra Banhart is an American singer-songwriter and visual artist. Banhart was born in Houston, Texas and was raised by his mother in Venezuela, until he returned to California as a teenager. He began to study at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1998, but dropped out to perform music in...
and others.
Anti-folk now has a home at the Antihootenany in the East Village, where artists like Beck, Regina Spektor, the Moldy Peaches and Nellie McKay got their starts.
Asia
Many Asian civilisations distinguish between art/court/classical styles and "folk" music, though cultures that do not depend greatly upon notation and have much anonymous art music must distinguish the two in different ways from those suggested by western scholars.
The European folk revival
The first folk revival influenced western
classical musicClassical music is the mainstream music produced in, or rooted in the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 9th century to present times...
. Such composers as
Percy GraingerGeorge Percy Grainger was an Australian-born composer, and pianist, who worked under the stage name of Percy Aldridge Grainger.-Early life and career :Percy Grainger was born in Brighton, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria...
,
Ralph Vaughan WilliamsRalph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores...
and
Béla BartókBéla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist, considered to be one of the greatest composers of the 20th century, and regarded, along with Liszt, as his country's greatest composer...
, made field recordings or transcriptions of folk singers and musicians.
In Spain Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909) produced piano works reflect his Spanish heritage, including the
Suite Iberia (1906-1909). Enrique Granados (1867-1918) composed
zarzuela, Spanish light opera, and
Danzas Españolas - Spanish Dances. Manuel de Falla (1876–1946) became interested in the
cante jondoCante jondo is a vocal style in flamenco. An unspoiled form of Andalusian folk music, the name means deep song It is generally considered that the common traditional classification of flamenco music is divided into three groups of which the deepest, most serious forms are known as cante jondo...
of Andalusian
flamencoFlamenco is a Spanish musical genre with origins in Andalusia. It can be both a musical form, known for its intricate rapid passages, and a dance characterized by audible footwork. The origins of the term are unclear...
, the influence of which can be strongly felt in many of his works, which include
Nights in the Gardens of SpainNights in the Gardens of Spain is a piece of music by the Andalusian composer Manuel de Falla ....
and
Siete canciones populares españolas ("Seven Spanish Folksongs", for voice and piano). Composers such as
Fernando SorJosep Ferran Sorts i Muntades was a Spanish guitarist and composer. He is best known for his guitar compositions, but he also composed music for opera and ballet, earning acclaim for his ballet titled Cendrillon...
and
Francisco TarregaFrancisco de Asís Tárrega y Eixea, was an influential Spanish composer and guitarist.-Biography:Tárrega was born on 21 November 1852, in Villarreal, Castellón, Spain...
established the
guitarThe guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that adapts readily to a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six strings, but four-, seven-, eight-, ten-, eleven-, twelve-, thirteen- and eighteen-string guitars also exist. The size and shape of the neck and the base of the guitar...
as Spain's national instrument. Modern Spanish Folk artists abound (Mil i Maria, Russian Red et al) modernizing whilst respecting the traditions of their forebears.
Flamenco grew in popularity through the 20th century, as did northern styles such as the Celtic music of Galicia. French classical composers, from Bizet to Ravel, also drew upon Spanish themes, and distinctive Spanish genres became universally recognised.
The folk revival of the 1950s in Britain and America
While the Romantic nationalism of the folk revival had its greatest influence on art-music, the "second folk revival" of the later 20th century brought a new genre of
popular musicPopular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres, and stands in contrast to art music, and traditional music which was disseminated orally...
with artists marketed by amplified concerts, recordings and broadcasting. The American
Woody GuthrieWoodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
collected folk music in the 1930s and 1940s and also composed his own songs, as did
Pete SeegerPeter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and a key figure in the mid-20th century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early '50s as a member of The Weavers, most notably the 1950 recording of Leadbelly's...
. In the 1930s
Jimmie RodgersJames Charles Rodgers , known as "Jimmie," was a country singer in the early 20th century known most widely for his rhythmic yodeling...
, in the 1940s
Burl IvesBurl Icle Ivanhoe Ives was an American actor, writer and folk music singer.As an actor, Ives's work included comedies, dramas and voice work in theater, television and motion pictures. A prolific recording artist, the prominent music critic John Rockwell has been quoted in the New York Times as...
and in the 1950s Seeger's group
The WeaversThe Weavers were an American folk music quartet based in the Greenwich Village area of New York City. They sang traditional folk songs from around the world, as well as blues, gospel music, children's songs, labor songs, and American ballads, selling millions of records at the height of their...
,
Harry BelafonteHarold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. , is an American musician, actor and social activist. One of the most successful popular singers in history, he was dubbed the "King of Calypso", a title which he was very reluctant to accept for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an...
,
The Kingston TrioThe Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to late 1960s. The group originated as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, and Nick Reynolds...
, and
The LimelitersThe Limeliters are a folk music group formed in July 1959 by Lou Gottlieb , Alex Hassilev , and Glenn Yarbrough . The group was active from 1959 until 1965, when they disbanded. After a hiatus of sixteen years Yarbrough, Hassilev, and Gottlieb reunited and began performing as The...
found a popularity that culminated in the
Hootenanny television series and the associated magazine
ABC-TV HootenannyLinda Solomon is an American music critic and editor. Although she has written about various aspects of popular culture, her main focus has been on folk music, blues, R&B, jazz and country music...
in 1963–1964.
Sing Out!Sing Out! is a quarterly journal of folk music and folk songs that has been published since May 1950.-Background:Sing Out! is the primary publication of the tax exempt, not-for-profit, educational corporation of the same name...
magazine helped spread both traditional and composed songs, as did folk-revival-oriented record companies.
In the 1960s, folk singers and songwriters such as
Joan BaezJoan Chandos Baez is a folk singer and songwriter known for her highly individual vocal style...
,
Bob DylanBob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet and painter who has been a major figure in popular music for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was, at first, an informal chronicler and then an apparently reluctant figurehead of social unrest...
,
Phil OchsPhilip David Ochs was a U.S. protest singer and songwriter who was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, earnest humanism, political activism, insightful and alliterative lyrics, and haunting voice...
, and
Tom PaxtonThomas Richard Paxton is an American folk singer and singer-songwriter who has been writing, performing and recording music for over forty years...
followed in
Guthrie'sWoodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
footsteps, writing "
protest musicA protest song is a song which is associated with a movement for social change and hence part of the broader category of topical songs . It may be folk, classical, or commercial in genre...
" and
topical songA topical song is a song that comments on political and/or social events. These types of songs are usually written about current events, but some of these songs remain popular long after the events discussed in them have occurred...
s and expressing support for the American Civil Rights Movement. The Canadians
Gordon LightfootGordon Meredith Lightfoot, Jr., CC, O.Ont is a Canadian singer and songwriter who has achieved international success in folk, country, and popular music...
,
Leonard CohenLeonard Norman Cohen, CC, GOQ is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often deals with the exploration of religion, isolation, sexuality and complex interpersonal relationships...
,
Bruce CockburnBruce Douglas Cockburn, OC is a Canadian folk/rock guitarist and singer-songwriter. His 29th album was released in summer 2006, and he has written songs in styles ranging from folk to jazz-influenced rock to rock and roll.-Biography:...
and
Joni MitchellJoni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, songwriter, and painter.Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Western Canada and then busking on the streets of Toronto...
were all invested with the
Order of CanadaThe Order of Canada is an honour for merit that is, within the Canadian system of honours, the highest such order administered by the Governor General-in-Council, on behalf of the Queen of Canada. Created in 1967, to coincide with the centennial of Canadian...
. Dylan's use of electric instruments helped inaugurate the genres of
folk rockFolk rock is a musical genre, combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
and
country rockCountry-rock is a musical genre formed from the fusion of rock with country music, with its country origins being initially referenced to the rockabilly music of the 1950s....
, particularly by his album
John Wesley HardingJohn Wesley Harding may refer to:* John Wesley Harding , a 1967 Bob Dylan album* John Wesley Harding , English singer...
and his support for the music of
The BandThe Band was a rock music group active from 1967 to 1976 and again from 1983 to 1999. The original group consisted of four Canadians: Robbie Robertson ; Richard Manuel ; Garth Hudson ; and Rick Danko , and...
. Many of the
acid rockAcid rock is a form of psychedelic rock, which is characterized with long instrumental solos, few lyrics and musical improvisation. Tom Wolfe describes the LSD-influenced music of The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Doors, Iron Butterfly, Big Brother & The Holding Company, Cream, Jefferson Airplane,...
bands of San Francisco began by playing acoustic folk and blues.
In 1950
Alan LomaxAlan Lomax was an American folklorist and ethnomusicologist. He was one of the great field collectors of folk music of the 20th century, recording thousands of songs in the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, the West Indies, Italy, and Spain.-Biography:Lomax was the son of pioneering...
came to
BritainThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
and met A.L.'Bert' Lloyd and
Ewan MacCollEwan MacColl was an English/Scottish folk singer, songwriter, socialist, actor, poet, playwright, and record producer...
, a meeting credited as inaugurating the second British folk revival. In London the colleagues opened The Ballads and Blues Club, eventually renamed the Singers' Club, possibly the first folk club: it closed in 1991. As the 1950s progressed into the 1960s, the folk revival movement built up in both Britain and America.
In the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
, the folk revival fostered young artists like
Martin CarthyMartin Carthy MBE is an English folk singer and guitarist who has remained one of the most influential figures in British traditional music, inspiring contemporaries such as Bob Dylan and Paul Simon and later artists such as Richard Thompson since he emerged as a young musician in the early days of...
and
Roy BaileyRoy Bailey , is a British socialist folk singer. Roy began his singing career in a skiffle group in 1958.Colin Irwin from the music magazine Mojo said Bailey represents "the very soul of folk's working class ideals.....
and a generation of singer-songwriters such as
Bert JanschHerbert Jansch , known as Bert Jansch, is a Scottish folk musician and founding member of the band Pentangle. He was born in Glasgow and, in the 1960s, he was heavily influenced by the guitarist Davey Graham and folk singers such as Anne Briggs...
,
Ralph McTellRalph McTell is an English singer-songwriter and acoustic guitar player who has been an influential figure on the UK folk music scene since the 1960s....
,
DonovanDonovan , is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music...
and
Roy HarperRoy Harper , is an English rock / folk singer-songwriter / guitarist who has been a professional musician since the mid 1960s. Harper has admitted being influenced by many forms of music, ranging from Miles Davis to Indian Raga to Stravinsky...
. Bob Dylan,
Paul SimonPaul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter. He entered the public consciousness in 1965 as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, along with longtime artistic partner Art Garfunkel. Simon solely wrote most of duo's songs, including such memorable songs as "The Sound of Silence", "The Boxer",...
and Tom Paxton visited Britain for some time in the early 1960s, the first two, particularly, making later use of the traditional English material they heard.
The late 1960s saw the advent of
electric folkElectric folk is the name given to the form of folk rock pioneered in England from the late 1960s, and most significant in the 1970s, which then was taken up and developed in the surrounding Celtic cultures of Brittany, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man, to produce Celtic rock and its...
groups, a key moment being the release of
Fairport ConventionFairport Convention are an English folk rock and later electric folk band, formed in 1967 who are still recording and touring today. They are widely regarded as the most important single group in the English folk rock movement...
's album Liege and Lief. Guitarist Richard Thompson declared that the music of The Band demanded a corresponding "English Electric" style, while bassist
Ashley HutchingsAshley Hutchings is a bassist, vocalist, songwriter, arranger, band leader, writer and record producer. He was a founder member of the three most significant English folk-rock bands in the history of the genre, Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span and The Albion Band; he has overseen numerous other...
formed
Steeleye SpanSteeleye Span is a British electric folk band, formed in 1969 and remaining active today. Along with Fairport Convention they are amongst the best known acts of the British folk revival, and were among the most commercially successful, thanks to their hit singles "Gaudete" and "All Around My Hat"....
in order to pursue a wholly traditional repertoire. In the second half of the 1990s, once more, folk music made an impact on the mainstream music via a younger generation of artists such as
Eliza CarthyEliza Carthy , is an English folk musician known for both singing and playing fiddle. She is the daughter of English folk musicians singer/guitarist Martin Carthy and singer Norma Waterson....
,
Kate RusbyKate Anna Rusby , is an English folk singer and songwriter from Penistone, South Yorkshire. Sometimes known as The Barnsley Nightingale, she has headlined various British national folk festivals, and is regarded as one of the most famous English folk singers of contemporary times...
and
Spiers and BodenSpiers and Boden are an English folk duo. John Spiers plays melodeon, concertina and other squeezeboxes, while Jon Boden plays fiddle, sings, and stamps out the rhythm on a piece of board.-Biography:...
.
Popular folk subgenres
- Contemporary country music
Country music is a blend of popular musical forms originally found in the Southern United States and the Appalachian Mountains...
descends ultimately from a rural American folk tradition, but has evolved. Bluegrass musicBluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and is a sub-genre of country music. It has roots in Irish, West African, Scottish, Welsh and English traditional music. Bluegrass was inspired by the music of immigrants from the United Kingdom and Ireland , and African-Americans, particularly...
is a professional development of American old time music, intermixed with bluesBlues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre created within the African-American communities in the Deep South of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
and jazzJazz is a musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
.
- Exponents of electric folk
Electric folk is the name given to the form of folk rock pioneered in England from the late 1960s, and most significant in the 1970s, which then was taken up and developed in the surrounding Celtic cultures of Brittany, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man, to produce Celtic rock and its...
music such as Fairport ConventionFairport Convention are an English folk rock and later electric folk band, formed in 1967 who are still recording and touring today. They are widely regarded as the most important single group in the English folk rock movement...
, PentanglePentangle are a British folk rock band with some jazz influences. The original band were active in the late 1960s and early 1970s and a later version have been active since the early 1980s...
, Alan StivellAlan Stivell is a French and Breton musician and singer, recording artist and master of the celtic harp who from the early 1970s revived global interest in the Celtic harp and Celtic Music as part of World Music.- Background-Learning Breton Music and Culture :Alan was born in the Auvergnat town...
, Mr. FoxMr Fox were an early 1970s electric folk or folk rock band. They were seen as in the ‘second generation’ of electric folk performers and for a time were compared with Steeleye Span and Sandy Denny’s Fotheringay. Unlike Steeleye Span they mainly wrote their own material in a traditional style and...
and Steeleye SpanSteeleye Span is a British electric folk band, formed in 1969 and remaining active today. Along with Fairport Convention they are amongst the best known acts of the British folk revival, and were among the most commercially successful, thanks to their hit singles "Gaudete" and "All Around My Hat"....
saw electrification of traditional musical forms as a means to reach a far wider audience.
- Traditional folk music merged with rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States after World War II in the late 1940s, from a combination of the rhythms of the blues, from the African American culture, and from America's country music and gospel music scenes...
to form folk rockFolk rock is a musical genre, combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
performers such as The ByrdsThe Byrds were an American rock and roll band. Formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964, The Byrds underwent several personnel changes, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973....
, Simon & Garfunkel and The Mamas & the PapasThe Mamas & the Papas were a vocal group of the 1960s. The group recorded and performed from 1965 to 1968 with a short reunion in 1971, releasing five albums and 11 Top 40 hit singles...
. Since the 1970s a genre of "contemporary folk" fueled by new singer-songwriters has continued with such artists as Chris CastleChris Castle is a folk/Americana singer-songwriter. Cleveland Magazine has described his writing as an "authentic connection to the world-weary soul of American roots music"., while The New London Day's Rick Koster calls Castle "a visionary songwriter"..-Early life:Born in Sandusky, Ohio in 1976,...
, Steve GoodmanSteve Goodman was an American folk music singer-songwriter from Chicago, Illinois. The writer of "City of New Orleans", made popular by Arlo Guthrie, Goodman won two Grammy Awards.-Personal life:...
, and John PrineJohn Prine is an American country/folk singer-songwriter. He has been active as a recording artist and live performer since the early 1970s.-Biography:...
. The PoguesThe Pogues are a band of mixed Irish and English background, playing traditional Irish music with influences from punk rock and jazz, formed in 1982 and fronted by Shane MacGowan. They reached international prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s, until MacGowan left the band in 1991 due to...
and Ireland's The CorrsThe Corrs are a Celtic folk rock group from Dundalk, Ireland. The group consists of the Corr siblings: Andrea ; Sharon ; Caroline ; and Jim ....
brought traditional tunes back into the albumAn album or record album is a collection of related audio or music tracks distributed to the public. The most common way is through commercial distribution, although smaller artists will often distribute directly to the public by selling their albums at live concerts or on their websites.-...
charts.
- In the 1980s artists like Phranc
Phranc is an American singer-songwriter whose career has spanned several decades.-Biography:She began her performing career in the late 1970s and early 1980s punk scene in Los Angeles...
and The KnittersThe Knitters are a Los Angeles-based band who play country, rockabilly and folk music. At the time of their formation they were pioneers of country punk, cowpunk or folk punk, the genre which gradually evolved into alternative country...
propagated cowpunkCowpunk or Country punk is a subgenre of punk rock that began in Southern California in the 1980s, especially Los Angeles. It combines punk rock with country music, folk music, and blues in sound, subject matter, attitude, and style. It grew directly out of the city's strong roots in both country...
or folk punkFolk punk , is a fusion of folk music and punk rock. It was pioneered by the London-based Irish band The Pogues in the 1980s...
, which eventually evolved into alt country. More recently the same spirit has been embraced and expanded on by performers such as Dave AlvinDave Alvin , is a guitarist, singer and songwriter.- Early musical influences :Dave and his older brother Phil grew up in a music-loving family in Downey, California...
, Miranda StoneMiranda Stone is a Canadian singer-songwriter originating from the Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario region and currently based in Toronto where she operates independent record label Earthdress Productions....
and Steve EarleStephen 'Steve' Fain Earle is an American singer-songwriter known for his rock and country music as well as his political views. He is also a published writer, a political activist and has written and directed a play...
.
- Hard rock
Hard rock or heavy rock is a sub-genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage and psychedelic rock and is considerably harder than conventional rock music...
and heavy metalHeavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in England and the United States...
bands such as KorpiklaaniKorpiklaani is a folk metal band from Finland who were formerly known as Shaman. The name Korpiklaani means "Forest Clan" in the Finnish language.-Biography:...
, SkycladSkyclad are a British heavy metal band with heavy folk influences in their music. They are considered one of the pioneers of folk metal. The etymology behind the term "skyclad" comes from a pagan/wiccan term for ritual nudity, in which rituals are performed with the participants metaphorically clad...
, WaylanderWaylander is an Irish band influential in the realms of Celtic folk metal. Formed in 1993, the band blends traditional Irish folk with 1990s heavy metal.-Biography:...
and FinntrollFinntroll is an extreme metal & folk metal band from Finland. They combine elements of black metal, death metal, and folk metal with Finnish polka, called humppa. Finntroll's lyrics are in Swedish, one of Finland's two national languages, because "Swedish just sounds damn trollish", according to...
meld elements from a wide variety of traditions, including in many cases instruments such as fiddles, tin whistleThe tin whistle, also called the tinwhistle, whistle, penny whistle , Irish whistle, feadóg, or feadóg stáin is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is an end blown fipple flute, putting it in the same category as the flageolet, recorder, Native American flute, and other woodwind instruments...
s, accordions and bagpipesBagpipes are a class of musical instrument, aerophones using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. Though the Scottish Great Highland Bagpipe and Irish uilleann pipes have the greatest international visibility, bagpipes of several varieties can be found in use...
. Folk metalFolk metal is a sub-genre of heavy metal music that developed in Europe during the 1990s. As the name suggests, the genre is a fusion of heavy metal with traditional folk music. This includes the widespread use of folk instruments and, to a lesser extent, traditional singing styles.The earliest...
often favours paganPaganism is a word with several different meanings.In its broadest definition, pagan denotes all non-Abrahamic religions, that is to say it denotes all religions other than Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.Other usages are:*Paganism may mean Polytheism: The group so defined includes most of the...
inspired themes. Black metalBlack metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It often employs fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, double-kick drumming, and unconventional song structure....
and viking metalViking metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music characterised by its galloping pace, keyboard-rich anthemic sound, bleakness and dramatic emphasis on Norse mythology, Norse paganism, and the Viking Age.-Characteristics:...
are defined on their folk stance, incorporating folk interludes into albums (eg, Bergtatt and KveldssangerKveldssanger is the second album by Norwegian band Ulver.The album is quite different from the band's previous offering Bergtatt in that the band's vocalist, Garm, only uses choir-like chanting instead of the usual harsh black metal vocals...
, the first two albums by once-black metal, now-experimentalExperimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-twentieth century, particularly in North America, and whose most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
band UlverUlver is a musical trio from Norway. Since their first, folklore-influenced black metal release entitled Bergtatt - Et eeventyr i 5 capitler , Ulver’s musical style has been fluid and increasingly eclectic, blending genres such as avant-garde rock, trip hop, symphonic and chamber traditions, noise...
). Other subgenres include.
- Indie folk
Indie folk is a music genre that arose in the 1990s from singer/songwriters in the indie rock community showing heavy influences from folk music scenes of the 50's, 60's and early 70's. A few early artists included Beck, Elliott Smith and Lou Barlow. This genre is often closely related to others...
- Techno-folk
Techno-folk is a music genre that combines elements of folk music and techno music.Such definition of musical style of techno folk is given by the founder of this style composer Sasha Lans : techno folk is a style in music, combining melodies and harmonies, characteristic for any nation, a...
- Industrial folk music
Industrial folk music, industrial folk song or industrial work song is a subgenre of folk or traditional music that developed from the eighteenth century, particularly in Britain and North America, with songs dealing with the lives and experiences of industrial workers.-Origins:Industrial folk song...
- Filk music
Filk is a musical culture, genre, and community tied to science fiction/fantasy fandom and a type of fan labor. The genre has been active since the early 1950s, and played primarily since the mid-1970s...
can be considered folk music stylistically and culturally (though the 'community' it arose from, science fiction fandomScience fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community of people actively interested in science fiction and fantasy literature, and in contact with one another based upon that interest...
, is an unusual and thoroughly modern one).
- Neofolk
Neofolk is a form of folk music-inspired experimental music that emerged from post-industrial music circles. Neofolk can either be solely acoustic folk music or a blend of acoustic folk instrumentation aided by varieties of accompanying sounds such as pianos, strings and elements of industrial...
began in the 1980s, fusing traditional European folk music with post-industrial music, historical topics, philosophical commentary, traditional songs and paganismPaganism is a word with several different meanings.In its broadest definition, pagan denotes all non-Abrahamic religions, that is to say it denotes all religions other than Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.Other usages are:*Paganism may mean Polytheism: The group so defined includes most of the...
. The genre is largely European.
- Anti folk, began in New York City in the 1980s by Lach
Lach is a musician associated with the anti-folk movement. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he was trained as a classical pianist from an early age only to abandon it once he heard The Sex Pistols, The Jam and The Clash for the first time. Realizing he was a songwriter, Lach backtracked and explored...
in response to the "confined" American folk music revivalThe American folk music revival was a phenomenon in the United States in the 1950s to mid-1960s. Its roots went earlier, of course, since traditional folk music has thousands of years of history, and performers like Burl Ives, Woody Guthrie, and Cisco Houston had enjoyed a limited general...
.
- Folk punk
Folk punk , is a fusion of folk music and punk rock. It was pioneered by the London-based Irish band The Pogues in the 1980s...
, (known in its early days as rogue folk), is a fusion of folk music and punk rock. It was pioneered by the London-based Irish band The Pogues in the 1980s.
Media
Further reading
- Anon. (2003) Lamentations chez les nomades bakhtiari d'Iran. Paris:.
- Bayard, Samuel Preston (1950). "Prolegomena to a Study of the Principal Melodic Families of British-American Folksong", Journal of American Folklore, 77-91.
- Bevil, J. Marshall (1987). "A Paradigm of Folktune Preservation and Change Within the Oral Tradition of a Southern Appalachian Community, 1916-1986." Unpublished. Read at the 1987 National Convention of the American Musicological Society, New Orleans.
- Carson, Ciaran (1997). Last Night's Fun: In and Out of Time with Irish Music. North Point Press.
- Cartwright, Garth (2005). Princes Amongst Men: Journeys with Gypsy Musicians. London: Serpent's Tail. ISBN 1852428775
- Cowdery, James R. (1990). The Melodic Tradition of Ireland. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press.
- Harker, David (1985). Fakesong: The Manufacture of British 'Folksong', 1700 to the Present Day. Milton Keynes [Buckinghamshire]; Philadelphia: Open University Press. ISBN 0335150667
- Hogeland, William (2004). "Emulating the Real and Vital Guthrie, Not St. Woody". New York Times (March 14).
- Jackson, George Pullen (1933). White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands: The Story of the Fasola Folk, Their Songs, Singings, and "Buckwheat Notes". Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. (August 6)
- Middleton, Richard (1990). Studying Popular Music. Milton Keynes; Philadelphia: Open University Press. ISBN 0-335-15276-7 (cloth), ISBN 0-335-15275-9 (pbk).
- Mills, Isabelle (1974). The Heart of the Folk Song, Canadian Journal for Traditional Music
The Canadian Journal for Traditional Music is a Canadian journal devoted to the folk music of Canada....
.
- Pegg, Carole (2001). "Folk Music". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan.
- Scully, Michael F. (2008). The Never-Ending Revival: Rounder Records and the Folk Alliance. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
- Seeger, Charles (1980). Cited in Middleton (2002)
- Sorce Keller, Marcello (1984). "The Problem of Classification in Folksong Research: A Short History", Folklore 95, no. 1:100–104.
- van der Merwe, Peter (1989). Origins of the Popular Style: The Antecedents of Twentieth-Century Popular Music. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-316121-4.
See also
- List of folk music traditions — country-specific music traditions
- List of folk musicians — musicians listed by country
- Folk instrument
A folk instrument is an instrument that developed among common people and usually doesn't have a known inventor. It can be made from wood, metal or other material. It is a part of folk music...
— a description and list of folk instruments
- Roud Folk Song Index
The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of 300,000 references to over 21,600 songs that have been collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud, a librarian in the London Borough of Croydon....
External links