Neofolk
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Neofolk is a music genre comprising a wide range of late-20th-century and early-21st-century music with a vague similarity to folk music of various sorts. It often borrows musically from either traditional folk music or popularized folk music, with influences ranging from nursery rhymes to medieval music to the acoustic guitar style of American folk music. Since the term is used in varying ways and to describe very different types of music, a precise definition of neofolk is not possible.
Apocalyptic folk is a type of music characterized by the employment of traditional folk styles with themes of ruin, destruction, war, loss, grief, misery, misanthropy and various other forms of apocalypse. Often, they are steeped in traditions of noise and industrial music. Specifically, this describes a phenomenon of formerly industrial/goth/noise bands changing styles to a more dark folk sound at around the same time, and is heavily associated with the label World Serpent Records. Fans of this music often followed from the industrial music background as well.
Artists in this genre create works that can be categorized in a variety of ways. This is but one type of dark folk that is typified by lyrics that envision collapse and lament on some form of loss. Much of this music is focused on the reaction of the single individual to a world that has been utterly corrupted by various nefarious means.
Well-known neofolk groups include:
