In the 1960s and 1970s, a number of British musicians
rediscovered traditional folk ballads, fusing the old
melodies with rock, jazz, and blues styles to create a
new genre dubbed "electric folk" or "British folk rock."
This revival featured groups such as Steeleye Span,
Fairport Convention, and Pentangle and individual
performers like Shirley & Dolly Collins, and Richard
Thompson. While making music in multiple styles, they
had one thing in common: they were all based on
traditional English song and dance material. These new
arrangements of an old repertoire created a unique
musical voice within the popular mainstream. After
reasonable commercial success, peaking with Steeleye
Span's Top 10 album All Around My Hat, Electric Folk
disappeared from mainstream notice in the late 1970s,
yet performers continue to create today. In Electric
Folk: The Changing Face of English Traditional Music,
Britta Sweers provides an illuminating history and
fascinating analysis of the unique features of the
electric folk scene, exploring its musical styles and
cultural implications. Drawing on rare historical
sources, contemporary music journalism, and first-hand
interviews with several of electric folk's most
prominent artists, Sweers argues that electric folk is
both a result of the American folk revival of the early
1960s and a reaction against the dominance of American
pop music abroad. Young British "folk-rockers," such as
Richard Thompson and Maddy Prior, turned to traditional
musical material as a means of asserting their British
cultural identity. Yet, unlike many American and British
folk revivalists, they were not as interested in the
"purity" of folk ballads as in the music's potential for
lively interaction with modern styles, instruments, and
media. The book also delves into the impact of the
British folk rock movement on mainstream pop, American
rock music, and neighboring European countries.
Ultimately, Sweers creates a richly detailed portrait of
the electric folk scene--as cultural phenomenon,
commercial entity, and performance style. |
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