| Folk punk | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | Celtic rock Electric folk Punk rock |
| Cultural origins | mid-1980s United Kingdom |
| Typical instruments | Electric guitar - Acoustic guitar - Vocals - Banjo - Drums - Violin - Mandolin - Accordion - |
| Mainstream popularity | 1980s |
| Derivative forms | Celtic punk Gypsy punk Anti-folk Indie folk |
| Other topics | |
| List of folk rock artists | |
Folk punk (known in its early days as rogue folk),[1] is a fusion of folk music and punk rock. It was pioneered in the late 1970s and early 1980s by The Pogues in Britain and Violent Femmes in America. Folk punk achieved some mainstream success in that decade. In more recent years, one of its subgenres, Celtic punk, has experienced some commercial success.
Unlike Celtic rock and electric folk, folk punk tends to include relatively little traditional music in its repertoire. Most folk punk musicians perform their own compositions, often in the form of punk rock, but using additional folk instruments, such as mandolins, accordions, banjos or violins.[2] Nevertheless, some folk punk bands have adopted traditional forms of folk music, including sea shanties and eastern European Gypsy music.
Folk punk was pioneered by the London-based Irish band The Pogues, formed in 1982, whose mixture of original songs and covers of established folk singers, many performed with a punk sensibility, led to three top ten albums in the UK, and a number two single in "Fairytale of New York" (1987) with Kirsty McColl, plus a string of top ten singles and albums in Ireland.[3] Their lead was adopted by a large number of performers in the 1980s.
The pioneers of a more distinctively English brand of folk punk were The Men They Couldn't Hang, founded in 1984. Also important were the Oysterband, who developed from playing English Céilidh music to an often fast and harder rock sound from about 1986.[2] The Levellers, founded in 1988, making less use of traditional melodies, but greater employment of acoustic instruments, including guitars.[2] Probably the most successful figure associated with English folk punk is singer-songwriter Billy Bragg, who enjoyed a series of hits in the 1980s.[4] Often considered part of a wider rogue folk movement are bands like Edward II, who mixed reggae with English folk music.[5]
Pioneered by the Violent Femmes, American folk punk became a thriving genre with the advent of Plan-It-X Records.[6]
The Pogues' style of punked-up Irish music spawned and influenced a number of Celtic punk bands, including Nyah Fearties from Scotland, and Australia's Roaring Jack.[7] It has been particularly popular in the USA and Canada, where there are large communities descended from Irish and Scottish immigrants. From the USA this includes the Irish bands Flogging Molly, The Tossers, Dropkick Murphys, Street Dogs, The Young Dubliners, Black 47, The Killdares, Jackdaw and Flatfoot 56, and for Scottish bands such as Seven Nations. From Canada are The Real McKenzies and The Mahones, from Australia, Roaring Jack and Mutiny, from the UK Neck (featuring a former member of Shane MacGowan's post-Pogues band, The Popes), and from the Czech Republic, Pipes And Pints. These groups were also influenced by American forms of music, and sometimes contained some members with no Celtic ancestry and commonly singing in English.[8]
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