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Traditional Folk Songs and the Folk Revival
Breakout
In English-speaking countries, the traditional folk songs of the UK and Ireland had a major revival that began in the late 1950s and rocketed in popularity in the early 1960s. Countless musicians in the UK, America, Canada, and other English-speaking nations wrote countless original songs in the English-Celtic folk tradition.
Crest
The folk music revival crested in the latter part of the 1960s and gave rise to sub-genres such as folk-rock (Dylan, the Byrds, etc.) and the folk-soul music of artists such as Van Morrison (for example, the beloved album Astral Weeks).
Mainstream Genre
Today, the term “roots” often appears in conjunction with folk music. The folk music revival subsided in popularity, and folk/roots settled into the mainstream of popular culture by the 1980s.