"Electric folk" redirects here. Not to be confused with folktronica.
British folk rock
Stylistic origins
Rock music
folk music
contemporary folk
folk rock
Cultural origins
1960s, United Kingdom
Subgenres
Medieval folk rock
Fusion genres
Celtic rock
folk punk
folk metal
British folk rock is a form of folk rock which developed in the United Kingdom from the mid 1960s, and was at its most significant in the 1970s. Though the merging of folk and rock music came from several sources, it is widely regarded that the success of "The House of the Rising Sun" by British band the Animals in 1964 was a catalyst, prompting Bob Dylan to "go electric", in which, like the Animals, he brought folk and rock music together, from which other musicians followed. In the same year, the Beatles began incorporating overt folk influences into their music, most noticeably on their Beatles for Sale album. The Beatles and other British Invasion bands, in turn, influenced the American band the Byrds, who released their recording of Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" in April 1965, setting off the mid-1960s American folk rock movement. A number of British groups, usually those associated with the British folk revival, moved into folk rock in the mid-1960s, including the Strawbs, Pentangle, and Fairport Convention.
British folk rock 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 derivatives, and has been influential in countries with close cultural connections to Britain. It gave rise to the genre of folk punk. By the 1980s the genre was in steep decline in popularity, but survived and revived in significance, partly merging with the rock music and folk music cultures from which it originated. Some commentators have found a distinction in some British folk rock, where the musicians are playing traditional folk music with electric instruments rather than merging rock and folk music, and they distinguish this form of playing by calling it "electric folk".
Britishfolkrock is a form of folkrock which developed in the United Kingdom from the mid 1960s, and was at its most significant in the 1970s. Though...
Folkrock is a genre of rock music with heavy influences from English folk and American folk music. Combining the elements of folk and rock music, it...
the British Isles, the land that is now the United Kingdom has been a major music producer, drawing inspiration from church music and traditional folk music...
which combined elements of early music with rock music. It grew out of the Britishfolkrock and progressive folk movements of the late 1960s. Despite the...
sub-culture of folk clubs and folk festivals as well as influential subgenres including progressive folk music and Britishfolkrock. Social and cultural...
Britishrock describes a wide variety of forms of music made in the United Kingdom. Since around 1964, with the "British Invasion" of the United States...
particularly classical and rock music, influencing musical styles and producing musical fusions, such as Britishfolkrock, folk punk and folk metal. There remains...
musicians who have both significant folk and rock elements in their music, even if they are not considered primarily folkrock artists. Chava Alberstein Eric...
Folk punk (known in its early days as rogue folk) is a fusion of folk music and punk rock. It was popularized in the early 1980s by The Pogues in England...
the American folk music revival. Fusion genres such as folkrock and others also evolved within this phenomenon. While contemporary folk music is a genre...
Dance-rock Gothic rock No wave Noise rock Post-rock Post-metal FolkrockBritishfolkrock Celtic rock Medieval folkrock Funk rock Garage rock Proto-punk...
which laid the groundwork for Britishfolkrock by being the first time a traditional British song was combined with a rock beat. Shortly before the album's...
hybrids like blues rock, folkrock, country rock, and jazz-rock fusion, many of which contributed to the development of psychedelic rock influenced by the...
Battlefield Band, The Clutha, and The Whistlebinkies. Celtic rock developed as a variant of Britishfolkrock by Scottish groups including the JSD Band and Spencer's...
radically developed by British musicians, including: blues rock, heavy metal music, progressive rock, punk rock, Britishfolkrock, folk punk, acid jazz, drum...
Beatles. In turn, the Byrds' vocal harmonies inspired those of Yes, and Britishfolkrock bands like Fairport Convention, who emphasised instrumental virtuosity...
of the Britishfolkrock movement. However, in addition to attracting fans of traditional Britishfolk, they also drew audiences from the rock, pop and...
by music from the folk music revival of the 1960s and then the 1970s songwriter movement. He has been described as having a "British-accented Melancholy"...
Indie folk is a music genre that arose in the 1990s among musicians from indie rock scenes influenced by folk music. Indie folk hybridizes the acoustic...
the British Invasion, this trend ran in parallel in both America and Britain and as part of the inter-related folk, folkrock and rock scenes. Folk artists...
like blues rock, folkrock, country rock, southern rock, raga rock, and jazz rock, which contributed to the development of psychedelic rock, influenced...
Oysterband (originally The Oyster Band) is a Britishfolkrock and folk punk band formed in Canterbury around 1976. The band formed in parallel to Fiddler's...
emergence of psychedelic rock in the mid-1960s resulted from British groups who made up the British Invasion of the US market and folkrock bands seeking to broaden...
August 1984) is a British musician and photographer, best known for being the bassist of the Grammy Award-winning Britishfolkrock band Mumford & Sons...