Progressive folk

Progressive folk or prog folk was originally a type of American folk music that pursued a progressive political agenda, but in the United Kingdom the term became attached to a subgenre that rejects or de-emphasizes the conventions of traditional folk music and encourages stylistic or thematic innovation. It gave rise to the genre of psychedelic or psych folk and had a major impact on the development of progressive rock.

History

Origins of the term

The original meaning of progressive folk came from its links to the progressive politics of the American folk revival of the 1930s, particularly through the work of musicologist Charles Seeger. Key figures in the development of progressive folk in America were Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie, who influenced figures such as Bob Dylan and Joan Baez in the 1960s. All mixed progressive political messages with traditional folk music tunes and themes.

In Britain, one of the major strands that emerged from the short-lived skiffle craze of 1956-9 were acoustic artists who performed American progressive material. Vital in the development of progressive folk was the emergence of the American counterculture and British underground scenes of the mid-1960s. The term progressive began to be used by radio stations to describe psychedelic music, including pop, rock and folk, that emerged from this scene.