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 directions.
Background
Singer from America, Woody Guthrie is considered the initiator in arousing interest in the United States folk music. Guthrie had a lot of folk songs in his creative luggage, but some of them were written directly by Woody himself, starting in the 30s of the 20th century. His follower was the composer, singer and just a good friend of his Pete Seeger.
Independent birth
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, folk is an independent, independent genre from no one. This event occurred due 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 folk music performers.
In the 60s, when such personalities as Johnny Mitchell, Richie Havens and other performers who prefer to introduce elements of nationality appear on the stage, the real flowering of the folk genre begins.
The folk song "Flight of the Condor" is considered a classic in this direction, when writing which the authors focused on the fundamental melodies of the inhabitants of the Andes.
It is worth noting that the genre also affects the social aspect.
So, soon a new subspecies of direction arises and spreads - folk rivevl, which in translation means "popular revival". The individuality of style lies in the presence of a pronounced theme of citizenship.
About 7 years old, American folk music occupied the first places in popularity on 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 the style of the work.
However, at the same time folk riveville had a rather strong influence on the genres of the future - country and pop.
Continued in the 60s
In the 1960s, the 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 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 MacTell and Donovan Litch shone on stage. And in Canada - Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot, Leonard Cohen and also the performer Baffy Sainte-Marie.
From the mid-1960s to the beginning of the 1970s, major changes took place in the fields of politics and culture, which also affected the folk genre. Redirection and diversification is manifested in the works of already popular solo artists such as Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Joan Baez, as well as groups 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 trend are the American band 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 for the famous song of Dylan Mr. Tambourine Man provoked an explosion of folk rock in the mid-1960s.
Not the last merit can be attributed to Dylan himself, who recorded as many as three albums with a rock band.
Rock folk is also 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 groups: 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 was also developed in Celtic cultures: Scotland, Wales, Ireland, the French region of Brittany and the Isle of Man.
The ancestors are the groups Fairport Convention, Pentangle and musician Alan Kushevelu.
Medival Folk Rock
This is a genre that combines classical music and rock. He simultaneously appeared both in England and in Germany, absorbing the features of electric and progressive folk.
The first attempts to combine traditional early music with popular ones resulted in a direction called baroque pop.
As the basis is taken the music of the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque.
Mid-style bands: Incredible String Band, Steeleye Span, Fairport Convention, Parzival, Gentle Giant, Jethro Tull, Arcana.
Of the domestic artists - the team "Aquarium" with the song "Golden City" in the style of mid-folk, written to stylize the music of Francesco de Milano - the Italian composer of the Renaissance period and poems by Henri Volokhonsky.
Folk punk
From the mid-1980s, the folk genre began to be mixed with elements and 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 emerged as a revival of American folk of the 70s and its crossing with post-punk. It uses acoustic, folk instruments, as well as electric guitars and synthesizers.
Parents: Sol Invictus and Death In June.
Groups: Allerseelen, Current 93, Death In June, Musk Ox and others.
Folk metal
It belongs to one of the areas of the metal genre, which incorporates elements of folk music: the widespread use of folk instruments.
One of the earliest representatives of metal folk is a group 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 teams, folk metal is still unnoticed. Popularity only came to the genre in the 2000s, when the groups Turisas, Finntroll, Moonsorrow, Ensiferum, Korpiklaani gained immense popularity.
A few subspecies of folk metal:
- oriental;
- Celtic
- medieval;
- latin.
1. The oriental contains elements of the East. Orphaned Land's Sahara debut album attracted attention with its unusual sounds. In Israel, the Melechesh group is formed, whose “cherry on the cake” is its anti-Christian orientation.
2. The album of the group Tuatha Na Gael of the group from Ireland Cruachan combined the Celtic music and the metal genre.
Groups: Primordial, Skyclad, Cruachan, Waylander.
3. The medieval direction is a subgenre of folk metal, combining elements of hard rock with music from the Middle Ages.
The genre appeared in the 90s thanks to bands such as Corvus Corax, In Extremo and Subway to Sally from Germany. Such folk implies large-scale use of medieval and folk instruments.
Some representatives: Ougenweide - one of the earliest groups, In Extremo, Saltatio Mortis, Tanzwut, Schandmaul, Letzte Instanz and others.
4. Latin metal or Latin American metal was formed in the late 1980s, when the Kranium group, consisting of Peruvians, was born. In their first album, the participants combined the folklore of the Andes with death and doom metal.
Another early representative was the Kraken group. All the teams working in this direction, nourished inspiration from the origins of the culture of the Incas and Aztecs.