England Music

The United Kingdom, like most European countries, underwent a roots revival in the last half of the 20th century. English music has been an instrumental and leading part of this phenomenon, which peaked at the end of the 1960s and into the 1970s

In the 60s and 70s, England was in a state of social upheaval as a counterculture developed, from which came an explosion of American blues-derived musical innovation as well as a revival of English folk music, inspired by pioneering artists like the Copper Family. There was mixing between the two groups, with bands like Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span pioneering a folk-rock fusion. Nic Jones, Davy Graham, Roy Harper, Ralph McTell, June Tabor, Shirley Collins, John Renbourn and John Kirkpatrick were among those who balanced innovation with tradition, and criticized the worst excesses of folk-rock. When Martin Carthy “plugged in” in 1971, the English traditional scene erupted in an uproar of criticism. Ashley Hutchings and Dave Pegg had been earlier innovators of the fusion, and Hutchings helped propel Fairport Convention into the star position of the English folk-rock scene, starting with the album “What We Did On Our Holidays”. Arguably the most successful of the folk-rock genre is Steeleye Span a band fronted by Maddy Prior and which continues to perform some 36 years after forming.

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The seventies were probably the heydays for Folk Music Publications. The popularity of English folk declined in the later 1970s, however, losing ground to glam rock, disco, punk rock, heavy metal and lovers rock. In the mid-1980s a new rebirth began, this time fusing folk forms with energy and political aggression derived from punk rock. Leaders included The Men They Couldn’t Hang, Oyster Band, Billy Bragg and The Pogues. Folk-dance music also became popular in the 80s, with the English Country Blues Band and Tiger Moth. Later in the decade, reggae influenced English country music due to the work of Edward II & the Red Hot Polkas, especially on their seminal Let’s Polkasteady from 1987. In the 21st century, Oxford produced a young duo Spiers and Boden.

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