What is Folk And Rock Music?
Folk rock is a hybrid musical style that emerged in the United States and Britain in the mid-1960s, combining the pure diatonic harmonies of traditional folk and country music with the energy, rhythms, and instrumentation of rock music. The sound was epitomized by tight vocal harmonies and a relatively “clean” (effects-free) approach to electric instruments, while the repertoire was drawn partly from traditional folk sources, but even more from folk-influenced singer-songwriters. The genre represents a pivotal moment when rock music was transformed by its intersection with folk, and although rock previously had been perceived and created almost exclusively as entertainment, it now began to take on folk music’s self-conscious seriousness of intent.
Origins & Lineage
Folk rock had antecedents in the labor movement of the 1930s, notably in the folk music of Pete Seeger (1919-2014) and Woody Guthrie (1912-1967). The folk revival of the 1940s through early 1960s laid groundwork through artists like the Weavers, the Kingston Trio, and figures like Joan Baez and Odetta. In the early 1960s, any suggestion that the folk and rock’n’roll worlds would intertwine to create a hybrid called folk-rock would have met with utter disbelief from both camps—the folk community prided itself on its purity, which meant acoustic instruments and songs of substance; it regarded rock’n’roll as vulgar and commercial.
The breakthrough arrived in 1965. Bob Dylan, the movement’s scruffy young troubadour, “went electric” during a July 25, 1965, performance at the Newport (Rhode Island) Folk Festival. The genre was pioneered by the Byrds, who began playing traditional folk music and songs by Bob Dylan with rock instrumentation, in a style heavily influenced by the Beatles and other British Invasion bands. The Byrds’ “Mr. Tambourine Man” was a number 1 hit in both America and the UK in June 1965, and this interpretation of Dylan’s composition single-handedly launched folk rock. The term folk rock was coined by the journalist Eliot Tiegel, who used it in Billboard magazine on June 12, 1965, principally to describe the music of the Byrds.
Key albums include Dylan’s Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, and Blonde on Blonde (all 1965-1966), the Byrds’ Mr. Tambourine Man and Turn! Turn! Turn! (1965), and the Beatles’ Rubber Soul (1965). The genre reached its commercial and artistic zenith for a brief period during 1965-1966.
How It’s Practiced
Musically, folk rock features electric guitar, acoustic guitar, electric bass guitar, drums, and other instruments like the mandolin, banjo, fiddle, and piano. George Harrison influenced the trend towards jangly guitars with his use of a Rickenbacker twelve-string guitar on the Beatles’ mid-1960s recordings—this relatively clean, jangly sound became a cornerstone of folk rock instrumentation.
Lyrically, the genre’s most notable features included the eclectic blending of electric and acoustic instruments, group harmonies, and poetic—often political with a pronounced anti-establishment message—song lyrics. Unlike pop music’s escapist lyrics, folk artists attempted to communicate concerns for peace, global awareness, and other touchstones of the era. Artists include Bob Dylan, the Byrds, Simon & Garfunkel, Joni Mitchell, the Mamas & the Papas, Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Donovan, and in Britain, Fairport Convention, Pentangle, and Steeleye Span.
In the United States, the heyday of folk rock was from the mid-sixties to the mid-seventies, when it aligned itself with the hippie movement—cities such as San Francisco, Denver, New York City and Phoenix became centers for the folk rock culture.
Folk And Rock Music Today
Folk rock’s influence extends through multiple generations. The folk rock movement began and quickly surged in the 1960s but has continued through the present day, spawning many offshoots, including psychedelic folk rock (Jefferson Airplane), country rock (the Flying Burrito Brothers, John Prine), progressive folk music (Richard Thompson, O’Death), punk-inspired folk rock (the Replacements, Dinosaur Jr., Buffalo Tom), and even folk metal (Skyclad, Moonsorrow). The folk rock sound of the Byrds has continued to influence many bands over the years, including Big Star, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, R.E.M., the Long Ryders, the Smiths, the Bangles, the Stone Roses, and Teenage Fanclub.
Contemporary artists carrying forward the tradition include Mumford & Sons, the Lumineers, Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, First Aid Kit, and in the conscious/spiritual realm, artists like Trevor Hall who blend folk-rock with explicitly spiritual themes. The annual Newport Folk Festival brings disparate folk acts together every summer in Newport, Rhode Island, highlighting the wide array of songwriting and performance styles in today’s folk rock music.
Common Misconceptions
Folk rock is not simply acoustic music with a drum kit. The “rock” in folk-rock was always more prominent than the “folk”; all acts had a highly commercial sense of melody, grafting guitar patterns and somewhat more personal, topical lyrical concerns from folk music into their own superb pop-rock creations.
The genre was controversial from its inception. Folk purists resented its commercialism and use of electric instruments and drums to such a degree that Bob Dylan was sometimes booed during his appearances in 1965 and 1966 when he came on stage for an electrified second set. Hard rockers and Rhythm and Blues fans often considered much of the folk rock genre to be without soul—an insipid white man’s music of the mind that simply did not engage the body like old time rock and roll.
Folk rock is also not synonymous with “Christian folk” or explicitly devotional music, though many artists explore spiritual themes. Many secular folk-rock artists, including Mumford and Sons’ Marcus Mumford and The Head and the Heart’s Josiah Johnson and Charity Rose Theilen, were raised in Christian households, but most do not overtly lay claim to their faith.
How to Begin
Start with the foundational albums: the Byrds’ Mr. Tambourine Man (1965), Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited (1965), Simon & Garfunkel’s Sounds of Silence (1966), and Crosby, Stills & Nash’s self-titled debut (1969). For British folk rock, explore Fairport Convention’s Liege and Lief (1969). For spiritual dimensions, investigate Donovan’s Sunshine Superman (1966), Cat Stevens’ Tea for the Tillerman (1970), or contemporary artists like Trevor Hall. Richie Unterberger’s book Turn! Turn! Turn!: The '60s Folk-Rock Revolution provides comprehensive history. Live music at folk festivals, intimate listening rooms, and conscious community gatherings offers direct experience of the genre’s communal, introspective power.