Psych folk
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Psych folk | |
| Stylistic origins | |
|---|---|
| Cultural origins |
Late 1960s, early 1970s
|
| Typical instruments | |
| Derivative forms | Neofolk Freak folk New Weird America Electroacoustic |
Psychedelic folk or psych folk is a loosely defined music genre that originated in the 1960s through the fusion of folk music and psychedelic rock. It retained the largely acoustic instrumentation of folk, but added musical influences common to psychedelic rock and the psychedelic experience.
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[edit] Characteristics
Psych folk generally favors acoustic instrumentation although it often incorporates other instrumentation. Chanting, early music and world music influences are often found in psych folk. Much like its rock counterpart, psychedelic folk is often known for a peculiar, trance-like, and atmospheric sound, often drawing on musical improvisation and Asian influences. Its lyrics are often concerned with such subjects as the natural world, love and beauty and try to evoke a state of mind associated with the effects of psychedelic drugs.[1]
[edit] History
[edit] 1960s
The first musical use of the term psychedelic is thought to have been by the New York based folk group the The Holy Modal Rounders on their version of Ledbelly's 'Hesitation Blues' in 1964.[2] Psychedelic music spread rapidly in the beat folk scenes of both the east and west coast of the mid-1960s.[3] San Francisco produced bands such as Kaliedescope, It's a Beautiful Day, Peanut Butter Conspiracy and H. P. Lovecraft.[4] From New York city's Greenwich Village came groups such as Jake and the Family Jewels and Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys.[5] Many of these psychedelic folk groups followed the Byrds into folk rock from 1965, are now as a result more widely remembered, including Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead and Quicksilver Messenger Service.[6]
From the mid-sixties, partly as a result of the British Invasion, this trend ran in parallel in both America and Britain and as part of the inter-related folk, folk rock and rock scenes. Folk artists who were particularly significant included the Scottish performers Donovan, who combined influences of American artists like Bob Dylan with references to flower power, and the Incredible String Band, who from 1967 incorporated a range of influences into their acoustic based music, including medieval and eastern instruments.[7] There was a brief flouring of British and Irish progressive folk in the late 1960s and early 1970s, with groups like the Third Ear Band and Quintessence following the eastern Indian musical and more abstract work by group such as Comus, Dando Shaft, The Trees, Spirogyra, Forest, and Jan Dukes De Grey.[8]
[edit] Decline in the 1970s
In the early 1970s psychedelia began to fall out of fashion and those folk groups that had not already moved into different areas had largely disbanded. In Britain folk groups also tended to electrify as did acoustic duo Tyrannosaurus Rex which became the electric combo T-Rex.[9] This was a continuation of a process by which progressive folk had considerable impact on mainstream rock.[10] Others, probably influenced by the electric folk pioneered by Fairport Convention from 1969, moved towards more traditional material, a category including Dando Shaft, Amazing Blondel, and Jack the Lad, an offshoot of northern progressive folk group Lindisfarne.[11] Examples of bands that remained firmly on the border between progressive folk and progressive rock were the short lived Comus and, more successfully, Renaissance, who combined folk and rock with classical elements.[12]
[edit] 2000s
A resurrection of the genre appeared in post 2000 indie rock movement, often described as New Weird America or Freak folk with bands like The Dodos, Yeasayer, Sufjan Stevens.
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- See also: List of psych folk artists
[edit] See also
- Freak folk
- Anti-folk
- Ptolemaic Terrascope - a psychedelic folk & rock magazine
- Galen Pehrson - Psychedelic folk Artist and Director
- Mellow Candle
- Neofolk
- New Weird America - A modern American psych-folk movement
- Willard's Canteen: northern CA iconoclastic 1 man band hermit
[edit] References
- ^ Gerald Van Waes, A Brief Overview of Psych-Folk and Acid Folk, from 60s until now
- ^ M. Hicks, Sixties Rock: Garage, Psychedelic, and Other Satisfactions (University of Illinois Press, 2000), pp. 59-60.
- ^ P. Auslander, Performing Glam Rock: Gender and Theatricality in Popular Music (University of Michigan Press, 2006), p. 76.
- ^ P. Auslander, Performing Glam Rock: Gender and Theatricality in Popular Music (University of Michigan Press, 2006), p. 76.
- ^ P. Auslander, Performing Glam Rock: Gender and Theatricality in Popular Music (University of Michigan Press, 2006), p. 76.
- ^ R. Unterberger, Turn! Turn! Turn!: The '60s Folk-rock Revolution (Backbeat, 1985, 2nd edn., 2005), pp. 183-230.
- ^ P. Scaruffi, A History of Rock Music 1951-2000 (iUniverse, 2003), p. 54 and J. DeRogatis, Turn on Your Mind: Four Decades of Great Psychedelic Rock (Hal Leonard, 2003), p. 120.
- ^ P. Scaruffi, A History of Rock Music 1951-2000 (iUniverse, 2003), pp. 81-2.
- ^ B. Sweers, Electric Folk: The Changing Face of English Traditional Music (Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 40.
- ^ E. Macan, Rocking the Classics: English Progressive Rock and the Counterculture (Oxford University Press, 1997), pp. 134-5.
- ^ P. Scaruffi, A history of rock music 1951-2000 (iUniverse, 2003), pp. 81-2.
- ^ P. Scaruffi, A history of rock music 1951-2000 (iUniverse, 2003), pp. 81-2.
[edit] External links
- Hippedelic Records - Selling Rare Psychedelic Vinyls
- PsychedelicFolk.com, by Gerald Van Waes
- Dream Magazine -- great resource for psych folk and all other types of psychedelic music
- Psych folk list on Amazon
- Contemporary Psychedelia: From Transcendence to Immanence -- An essay on psych folk and spirituality
- Dirty Linen Magazine feature article on New Psych Folk
- Whiskey and Apples -- Psych folk record label
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