Singer-Songwriter Folk
tagStarted 1968Peak 1970–1978Last big hit 1997
Located in 1 route
Singer-songwriter folk puts the lone authorial voice at center, usually with acoustic guitar or piano and enough arrangement to frame, not overpower, the writing. Chord movement, melody, phrasing, and lyrical point of view matter more than genre spectacle.
History
This style rose directly out of the late-1960s turn from communal revival-folk toward personal authorship, then expanded in the 1970s and revived periodically in adult-alternative and folk circuits. Joni Mitchell, Shawn Colvin, Patty Griffin, Dar Williams, Greg Brown, and John Gorka exemplify the format: songs driven by craft, personality, and a sense that singer and writer are inseparable.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Folk music"
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Singer-songwriters"
- Library of Congress, "Coffeehouses: Folk Music, Culture, and Counterculture"
- MasterClass, "Folk Music Artists: A Brief History of Folk Music." citeturn0search0turn1search0turn0search2turn2search0