Folk is what it is The best musical groups and their songs

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Folk (short for folklore) is a musical genre that combines traditional folk culture with modernity. At the moment, folk is one of the most interesting and colorful trends.

Backstory

American singer Woody Guthrie is credited with pioneering interest in the folk music of the United States. There were many folk songs in Guthrie's creative baggage, but some of them were written directly by Woody himself, starting from the 30s of the XX century. His follower was the composer, singer and just his good friend Pete Seeger.

Independent Birth

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, folk was a genre independent of anyone. This event happened thanks to the rhythmic techniques used in pop music, which later began to be used to process folk songwriting.

World personality Bob Dylan became one of the first and very famous performers of folk music.

In the 60s, when personalities such as Joni Mitchell, Richie Havens and other performers appeared on the scene, preferring to introduce elements into their worknationality, the real flowering of the folk genre begins.

The folk song "Flight of the Condor" is considered a classic of this direction, when writing which the authors focused on the indigenous melodies of the Andes.

It is worth noting that the genre also affects the social aspect.

So, soon a new subspecies of the direction will appear and spread - folk revival, which means "folk revival" in translation. The individuality of the style lies in the presence of a pronounced theme of citizenship.

For about 7 years, the folk music of America took first place in popularity in the charts of the USA and Britain, even though the compositions, in principle, were not originally folk, since each of them had its own specific author who used folklore as art style.

However, folk revival had a strong influence on the genres of the future - country and pop.

Continued in the 60s

In the 1960s, folk style is a popular phenomenon or, in other words, the mainstream. Thus, a new form of this genre called "modern folk music" is born.

Important musicians who emerged from the 40s to the early 60s were Woody Guthrie, Pete Cigar, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. In the UK, Bert Jensch, Roy Harper, Ralph McTell and Donovan Leitch shone on stage. And in Canada - Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot, Leonard Cohen and also the performer Bufi Sainte-Marie.

From the mid-1960s to the early 1970s, there were major changes inspheres of politics and culture, which also affects the folk genre. Redirection and diversification is evident in the work of already popular solo artists such as Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Joan Baez, as well as Peter, Paul and Mary and The Seekers. They mix folk with rock and pop styles.

All the changes that have taken place lead to the birth of new motley styles: folk-rock, folk-pop, psycho-folk and many others.

Basic Styles

Perhaps one of the most popular varieties is folk with a touch of rock. The pioneers of this direction are the American group The Byrds, which begins to process American folk art, as well as Bob Dylan's compositions in typical rock instrumentation.

The term first appeared when, in 1965, the press described the debut album of a folk group. Cover of Dylan's famous song Mr. Tambourine Man sparked an explosion of folk rock in the mid-1960s.

Not the last merit can be attributed to Dylan himself, who recorded three whole albums with a rock band.

Also, rock-folk is divided into many subspecies, which will be discussed below.

Blues-folk

Blues or country blues is based on the folklore of blacks living in the USA. The classic blues was focused on urban life.

Some of the bands: The Animals, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Buffalo Skinners, Dylan & The Dead.

Electric Folk

Electric folk is a subspecies developed in England in the late 1960s, which also developed in Celtic cultures: Scotland, Wales, Ireland, the French region of Brittany and the Isle of Man.

Founded by Fairport Convention, Pentangle and musician Alan Cuchevelo.

Midival-folk-rock

This is a genre that combines classical music and rock. It simultaneously appeared in both England and Germany, absorbing the features of electric and progressive folk.

The first attempts to combine traditional early music with popular music resulted in a direction called baroque pop.

As the basis is taken the music of the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque.

Midival bands: Incredible String Band, Steeleye Span, Fairport Convention, Parzival, Gentle Giant, Jethro Tull, Arcana.

From domestic performers - the team "Aquarium" with the song "Golden City" in the midi-folk style, written to stylize the music of Francesco de Milano - the Italian composer of the Renaissance period and poetry by Anri Volokhonsky.

Folk punk

From the mid-1980s, folk began to mix with elements of punk rock.

Bands: The Pogues, The Men They Couldn't Hang, Billy Bragg, Dropkick Murphys, Violent Femmes and others.

Neofolk

Neofolk is a genre that was formed as a revival of American folk of the 70s and its crossing with post-punk. In himacoustic, folk instruments, as well as electric guitars and synthesizers are used.

Fathers: Sol Invictus and Death In June.

Bands: Allerseelen, Current 93, Death In June, Musk Ox and more.

Folk metal

Refers to a branch of the metal genre that incorporates elements of folk music: the extensive use of folk instruments.

One of the earliest representatives of metal folk is a band called Skyclad, whose debut album was written in this very genre.

By the mid-1990s, a fairly large number of different ethnic groups appeared:

• Cruachan from Ireland;
• Subway to Sally from Germany;
• Orphaned Land from Israel.

But despite the activities of these bands, folk metal still goes unnoticed. The popularity of the genre comes only in the 2000s, when the bands Turisas, Finntroll, Moonsorrow, Ensiferum, Korpiklaani gain huge popularity.

Several subspecies of folk metal:

• Oriental;
• Celtic;
• medieval;
• Latin

1. Oriental contains elements of the East. The debut album Sahara by Orphaned Land attracted attention with its unusual sounds. In Israel, the Melechesh group is formed, the "icing on the cake" of which is its anti-Christian orientation.

2. Album by Tuatha NaIreland's Gael band Cruachan combined Celtic and metal music.

Bands: Primordial, Skyclad, Cruachan, Waylander.

3. Medieval is a sub-genre of folk metal that combines elements of hard rock with music from the Middle Ages.

The genre began in the 90s thanks to bands such as Corvus Corax, In Extremo and Subway to Sally from Germany. Such folk involves a large-scale use of medieval and folk instruments.

Some representatives: Ougenweide - one of the earliest bands, In Extremo, S altatio Mortis, Tanzwut, Schandmaul, Letzte Instanz and others.

4. Latin metal or Latin American metal was formed in the late 1980s, when the Peruvian band Kranium was born. In their first album, the members combined Andean folklore with death and doom metal.

Another of the early representatives was the group Kraken. All teams working in this direction were inspired by the origins of the culture of the Incas and Aztecs.