Anti-folk (sometimes referred to as unfolk) is a
music genre that emerged in the 1980s in response to the remnants of the 1960s
folk music
Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...
scene. Anti-folk music was made to mock the perceived seriousness of the time's mainstream music scene,
and artists have the intention to protest with their mocking and clever lyrics.
History
In the United States
Anti-folk was introduced by artists who were unable to obtain gigs at established folk venues in
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
such as
Folk City
Gerdes Folk City, sometimes spelled Gerde's Folk City, was a music venue in the West Village, part of Greenwich Village, Manhattan, in New York City. Initially opened by owner Mike Porco as a restaurant called Gerdes, it eventually began to presen ...
and The Speakeasy.
[ (article in on pages 1 and 36)] In the mid-1980s, singer-songwriter
Lach started The Fort, an after-hours club on NYC's
Rivington Street in the
Lower East Side.
The Fort's opening coincided with the New York Folk Festival. Because of this, Lach dubbed his event the
New York Antifolk Festival
The New York Antifolk Festival is an annual music festival featuring anti-folk, indie rock, post-punk and indie pop bands and singer-songwriters. It also has featured performance artists, comedians and magicians.
Conceived in 1985 by Lach, the ...
.
Other early proponents of the movement included
The Washington Squares
The Washington Squares are a neo-beatnik folk revival music group. Modeled after early 1960s groups like The Kingston Trio and Peter, Paul and Mary, the group was named after New York City's Washington Square Park, emblematic of Greenwich Village. ...
,
Cindy Lee Berryhill
Cindy Lee Berryhill (born June 12, 1965) is an American singer-songwriter, co-founder of the New York Antifolk movement, who recorded multiple albums, hit singles, and compilations over the years.
Biography
Berryhill was born in Silver Lake, ...
,
Brenda Kahn,
Paleface,
Beck,
Hamell on Trial,
Michelle Shocked
Michelle Shocked (born Karen Michelle Johnston; February 24, 1962) is an American singer-songwriter. Her music has entered the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, been nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album, and received an award f ...
, Zane Campbell, and
John S. Hall.
Roger Manning
Roger Manning is a New York City based singer-songwriter who plays an aggressive acoustic style of music. Manning, along with a small handful of other artists, composed the original New York City anti-folk scene.
On February 6, 1985, Manning w ...
,
Kirk Kelly
Kirk P. Kelly (born circa 1960) is a folk singer, songwriter and labor activist from New York City. In the mid-1980s Kelly and a group of like-minded musicians started calling themselves " anti-folk" and started a small but intense movement.Rob ...
, and
Block
Block or blocked may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting
* Block programming, the result of a programming strategy in broadcasting
* W242BX, a radio station licensed to Greenville, South Carolina, United States known as ''96.3 ...
.
The original Fort was shut down in 1985 by the police, and because of this the club moved locations several times, including
East Village bars Sophie's and Chameleon, before settling in the back room of the
SideWalk Cafe
The SideWalk Cafe was a music venue and restaurant/cafe in East Village, New York City founded in 1985. It became a known venue for its underground music scene, and in particular, was known as being the center for Anti-folk in the United State ...
starting in 1993.
The
New York Antifolk Festival
The New York Antifolk Festival is an annual music festival featuring anti-folk, indie rock, post-punk and indie pop bands and singer-songwriters. It also has featured performance artists, comedians and magicians.
Conceived in 1985 by Lach, the ...
was held annually at the
SideWalk Cafe
The SideWalk Cafe was a music venue and restaurant/cafe in East Village, New York City founded in 1985. It became a known venue for its underground music scene, and in particular, was known as being the center for Anti-folk in the United State ...
until its closure in 2019 (long outlasting the original Folk Festival). Events have also taken place in the
band shells in
Tompkins Square Park
Tompkins Square Park is a public park in the Alphabet City portion of East Village, Manhattan, New York City. The square-shaped park, bounded on the north by East 10th Street, on the east by Avenue B, on the south by East 7th Street, and on ...
and
Central Park
Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated ...
.
While living in San Francisco in the early 1990s, Lach helped establish a West Coast anti-folk movement at the Sacred Grounds Coffee House.
Other artists to have achieved a notable level of success who have been considered anti-folk include
Jeffrey Lewis
Jeffrey Lewis (born November 20, 1975) is an American singer-songwriter and comic book artist.
Early life
Lewis was born in New York City and grew up on the Lower East Side. He attended State University of New York at Purchase, graduating i ...
,
Regina Spektor
Regina Ilyinichna Spektor (russian: Регинa Ильинична Спектор, ; born February 18, 1980) is a Russian–born American singer, songwriter, and pianist.
After self-releasing her first three records and gaining popularity in ...
and
The Moldy Peaches
The Moldy Peaches were an American indie group founded by Adam Green and Kimya Dawson. Leading proponents of the anti-folk scene, the band has been on hiatus since 2004. The appearance of their song "Anyone Else but You" in the film '' Juno'' ...
.
In the United Kingdom
In the 2000s the term was adopted in Britain, particularly in the London underground scene, with acts including
David Cronenberg's Wife and The Bobby McGee's. The UK anti-folk scene, largely centred in London and
Brighton, has established its own identity, which has been written about in a six-page feature in the September 2007 issue of ''
Plan B'' magazine. In 2004 the
lo-fi
Lo-fi (also typeset as lofi or low-fi; short for low fidelity) is a music or production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections in the context of a recording or performance are present, sometimes as a deliberate choice. The ...
musician
Filthy Pedro Filthy Pedro is an antifolk musician based in London. Born Simon Parry in Anglesey, Wales, he moved to London in the late 1990s. Parry had grown interested in antifolk after hearing Beck's '' Stereopathetic Soulmanure'' album (1994). However, it w ...
started seasonal anti-folk festivals, which he promoted with Tom Mayne of the band David Cronenberg's Wife. An anti-folk scene in Brighton, curated primarily by Mertle, was quick to follow that of London.
Other key figures within the UK anti-folk community include
Dan Treacy of Television Personalities,
Jack Hayter,
Milk Kan,
Extradition Order,
Benjamin Shaw, Lucy Joplin, Candythief, JJ Crash, Larry Pickleman and
Paul Hawkins.
Emmy the Great
Emma-Lee Moss (born 4 November 1983), known by her stage name Emmy the Great, is an English singer-songwriter. She has released four studio albums, ''First Love'', ''Virtue'', ''Second Love'' and ''April / 月音''. She sings in English and ...
and
Laura Marling
Laura Beatrice Marling (born 1 February 1990) is a British folk singer-songwriter. She won the Brit Award for Best British Female Solo Artist at the 2011 Brit Awards and was nominated for the same award at the 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018 Brit Aw ...
were added to the roster of antifolk artists as they play antifolk music with mocking lyrics.
Kate Nash
Kate Marie Nash (born 6 July 1987) is an English singer-songwriter and actress.
Nash launched her music career in 2005. Her 2007 single " Foundations" became a hit and brought her to public attention in the UK. Her debut album, '' Made of Bricks ...
started her music career playing anti-folk-style shows, including a concert promoted by Larry Pickleman and Mertle in Brighton.
Dan Willson, who performs under the name
Withered Hand
Dan Willson (born 23 July 1974), also known by his stage name Withered Hand, is an Edinburgh-based indie rock musician. He lived in Bishops Stortford during the 1990s and played guitar for local band Tin Foil Circus.
His first studio album, ' ...
, is an Edinburgh-based musician often considered part of the genre. His first studio album, Good News, was released in 2009.
Welsh anti-folk artist
Mr Duke
Mr Duke (born 1 April 1983 as David Edwards) is a Welsh bilingual country singer-songwriter. Born in Snowdonia, North Wales he took his name from a character in Hunter S. Thompson's 1971 novel ''Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas''.
At the age of ...
has gained some popularity in Wales, and
Crywank
Crywank is a British anti-folk band based out of Manchester, England. The band is a duo consisting of vocalist/guitarist and founder Jay Clayton and drummer Dan Watson, who joined in 2012. Allmusic describes their body of work as containing "sadn ...
, an anti-folk project from Manchester, surfaced in 2009. Crywank's popularity can be seen through the disappointment of fans when the break-up was announced in 2019. Though in 2021, Crywank released a final album.
See also
*
Anticomp Folkilation
''Anticomp Folkilation'' is a 2-CD compilation album featuring a variety of artists from New York's anti-folk scene.
Sounds and Themes
This album itself has been described as incongruous yet in line with traditional Folk and Punk sensibilities.
...
*
Psychedelic folk
Psychedelic folk (sometimes acid folk or freak folk) is a loosely defined form of psychedelic music, psychedelia that originated in the 1960s. It retains the largely acoustic instrumentation of contemporary folk music, folk, but adds musical el ...
*
Counterculture of the 1960s
References
External links
*
''Antifolk.com'' The most updated Antifolk website, covering the movement across the world''Antifolk.net'' The New York Antifolk website, started by Lach to promote the scene''Morning Star'' article on Anti-folk''Village Voice'' article on UK Anti-folk* [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/style/wp/2018/02/01/feature/this-hillbilly-madman-is-country-music-royalty-so-why-havent-you-heard-of-him/ Washington Post article about Zane Campbell's part in Anti-folk]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anti-Folk
Anti-folk music, *
American styles of music
British styles of music
Punk rock genres
1980s in music
1990s in music
2000s in music
2010s in music