Folk-rock music: everything you need to know about it

Hi there !

Today, we meet to talk about the union of two musical genres resulting in a very famous style of rock music: FOLK-ROCK music!

But first, to be able to talk about folk-rock music, you have to know what folk is. Because these two kinds of music are intrinsically bounded.

This means that this post will be a little longer than usual, so get comfortable! 😀

DISCLAIMER: This post is based on some of my knowledge and is backed up and supplemented by research done before its writing. You can find the sources at the bottom of the page.

Note: Bands/ artists I quote in the posts, I only mention them to give you an idea of the sounds you find in the different genres. But I want to be clear that over time it has become more and more complicated to do it with style blends and so on.
In addition, my goal is not to categorize artists, but to present them to you so that you discover the different possibilities that there are in rock and metal. And even make you enjoy those genres.

What’s folk music?

In 1954, the International Folk Music Council decreed that its object of study (folk) was “the product of a musical tradition that had evolved through an oral transmission process.”

More simply, a folk song is a melody transmitted from generation to generation, gradually forgetting its origins and the names of its authors.

However, with folk revival (in the 60s), the latter part of the definition becomes obsolete.

With this movement:

Artists bring back a practice existing for at least 1 century (hence the folk revival).
The new folk songs are localized, attributed and dated.

The instruments of folk music

We can find in particular:

Guitars/ Dobros/ mandolins/ ukuleles;

Banjos;

Harmonica;

Fiddles/ Violins (the difference between the two instruments is that the fiddle is a popular instrument and the violin is more for classical music);

Fiddle / violin picture, folk-rock music

Accordion,

“DIY” / unconventional instruments (spoons, sandstone pot etc.).

Folk music in the USA

It’s the Appalachia music (mountain ranges in the East of the USA) that is the main source of renewal in folk music.

The latter is derived from various European and African influences. We can hear the influence of English ballads and traditional Irish and Scottish music.

Appalachia’s music gives to folk music :

An instrumental setting: a singer accompanied on the guitar (by himself or not)
A literary framework: lyrics about the realities of everyday life (money, work, love, death) or events such as war, labour movements, social/legal injustices affecting people’s lives.

In comparison to the lyrics of pop or rock music, folk is a «serious» music. It will interest more the educated young city adults, than the rural working class ones, whose folk are supposed to be born.

For its fans, its number one attraction is the fact that folk music is “common people” music for “common people”. Artists are not superior to the public, they represent it. Only matters a simple, direct and unpretentious performance.

Urban settlement and the discovery of folk by the middle classes took place in the 1940s. It is symbolically associated with the meeting of 3 distinct traditions in New York :

Leadbelly’s country blues
Woody Guthrie’s Dust-bowl Ballads
Pete Seeger’s Urban Folk

Caricature Woody Guthrie, Folk rock music

Calypso music

It is music from the Caribbean and popularized in the USA by Harry Belafonte (Jamaica Farewell, The Banana Boat Song).

The texts of these songs sometimes consist of an Anglo-Jamaican patois. As for the accompaniment, it includes an acoustic guitar and bongos (which will give a folk aura to this genre).

Other groups (usually made up of university students) will surf on success, such as the Kingston Trio, the Brothers Four or the Highwaymen.

Calypso music will help the development of folk music in the USA.

The development of folk continues with artists such as Peter, Paul and Mary, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton, Patrick Sky, Eric Andersen, Judy Collins, and Léonard Cohen.

Caricature Peter, Paul and Mary — Bob Dylan’

Caricature Bob Dylan, folk rock — Bob Dylan’

folk music in the UK

In England, interest in folk music has been evident for several decades. In a whole host of initiatives, some artists, such as Shirley Collins, Mat McGinn, and Bob Davenport, have been successful.

Caricature Shirley Collins, folk rock music

But, at the end of 1955, it was Lonnie Donegan who changed the course of music with his cover of the title Rock Island Line.

In his song, the rhythm goes crescendo, and he uses «homemade» instruments (in this case, a washing board).

However, nothing is new, neither the composition nor the instrumental configuration. Leadbelly and the skiffle had already used them previously.

Skiffle

Originally American, it meant a kind of music played mainly by African-Americans. It emerged in the early twentieth century in New Orleans and spread to all southern American states shortly thereafter.

They used, in addition to string instruments (guitars, banjos, mandolins), instruments handcrafted from domestic accessories such as washing boards, string bass whose resonance box consists of a literal box, kazoos, violins made from cigar boxes, or the use of combs that are rubbed on paper.

What makes Lonnie Donegan successful is the fact that he brought the energy and excitement that was missing at the time to English music. He’s given teenagers something to hang on to.

Although his success was brief, his influence would continue decades later. The young Englishmen of the time considered skiffle as a window on America. Donegan’s successes have become the manual of hundreds of apprentice guitarists:

After playing skiffle: Cliff Richard embarked on the path of rock n’roll, Martin Carthy in folk, Alexis Korner began electrifying the blues,

John Lennon was first a skiffle player,

During Jimmy Page’s 1st TV performance, he also played this style of music.

Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple), Robin Trower (Procol Harum) et David Gilmour (Pink Floyd) did their class in that genre.

Folk music in EU

France

In 1960, Hugues Aufray brought this style and also mixed it with Latin and South American music. He offers interpretations attached to folklore other than those in the USA. At the same time, he transposes Bob Dylan’s songs.

Folk music continued to expand in the 1970s with bands Malicorne, Maluzerne, Mélusine, Tri-Yann and Alan Stivell. We are also talking about folk revival.

In the 80s, we can see a strong development of Breton music that is inevitably linked to folk music.

More generally, we can see differences in the instruments. In France and in Europe, violins, tin whistle, bagpipes, and hurdy-gurdy are commonly used. Later, the accordion will join and will be at the origin of the musette style.

Tin Whistle picture — source : Wikipedia

Moving from Folk to Folk-rock music

In 1965, Bob Dylan marked a turning point in popular culture with the appearance of Bringin’ It All Back Home, Highway Sixty One Revisited and Blonde on Blonde :

By successfully combining oral literature and folk tradition, he brought the text of popular song into the literature.
And by adding electric instruments in some of his compositions, Bob Dylan becomes the promoter of a new genre: FOLK-ROCK.

The critics will be there as much for the lyrics as for the folk-rock. He becomes traitor and opportunist for some and messenger of genius for others.

PS: Here I’ll only talk about the criticisms made about the use of electric instruments.

At first, the folk community expressed little face to this change. It’s from his performance at the Newport Folk Festival that the reactions appear. He will be booed by half the crowd, and Pete Seeger and other «folk elders» will feel betrayed. All this because, in their minds, switching from acoustics to electric, Bob Dylan sold his soul to pop music and therefore to big capital.

However, all these controversies and the adherence of rock lovers to the approach of Bob Dylan have made folk-rock a dazzling trend of the music industry!

In the summer of 1965, dozens of titles borrowed or inspired by Bob Dylan were published:

The Turtles enter the charts with It Ain’t Me Babe;
Sonny and Cher are successful with All I Really Want To Do;
At the same time, older protests-songs such as Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Universal Soldier (1964) and Phil Ochs’ There But For Fortune (1964) were quickly released in an electrified version.

Caricature Sonny and Cher, folk rock music

Behind these hurried releases, folk-rock also quickly sees the emergence of original and lasting figures of the genre such as The Byrds, Simon and Garfunkel, or The Mamas and The Papas.

As early as 1965, the term Folk-Rock became a vast catch-all. Artists that mixed committed lyrics, folk tunes, and rock instruments were put in. No matter the sound, level of commitment, or direction of the artist. But the movement was launched, and its various branches were to prove as numerous as they were sustainable.

So if we have to define folk-rock, it’s folk music, where we added the rhythm of rock as well as electric instruments.

Folk-Rock in the UK

This new instrumental approach, combined with electrification and an inexhaustible national repertoire, gives rise to an important branch of Folk-Rock whose notoriety will equal other rock forms.

The Incredible Sting Band, Pentangle and Fairport convention open the procession, followed by many guitarists such as Davey Graham, Bert Jansch, Martin Carthy or John Renbourn.

Caricature The Incredible String Band, folk rock music

Folk-Rock in the USA

Bob Dylan, who had completely disappeared after a motorcycle accident that almost cost him his life, returns. He first recorded an album with the Canadian band The Band in 1967.

He returned to his personal production in January 1968 with the album John Wesley Harding, on which will feature the famous All Along The Watchtower.
Yes, guys! This is an original song by Bob Dylan, covered by Jimi Hendrix. And personally, I like both versions.

On his side, Leonard Cohen helped to confirm the emergence of literary popular music. And for good reason! The latter first makes itself known by publishing collections of poetry.
For those who do not know Leonard Cohen, he’s the original singer-songwriter of the song Hallelujah.

We can add to the list of American folk-rock bands, Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills and Nash (sometimes joined by Neil Young)

Caricature Buffalo Springfield, folk rock

Caricature Crosby, Stills and Nash, folk rock

Today, the two genres are still very closely related. Artists oscillate between the two. The difference is that there is less debate about the use of electrified or non-electrified instruments for a song.

To listen to the Spotify playlist dedicated to this post, you can click on the button below.

Spotify Playlist

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Also, you can see all the drawings / caricatures right here !

See you soon !