2020/01/10 by Kit O’Toole · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · #Music History and Culture #Soul #Art #Folk music #Movement (music) #Guitar #Folk song #Symbol (formal) #Literature #Art history #Visual arts #Musical #Aesthetics #Philosophy #Theology #Acoustics
paper · doi:10.1017/9781108296939.021
openalex publication_date 2020/01/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
While the folk revival movement traces back to the 1930s, the 1960s saw a new phase: the combination of traditional folk and rock, two seemingly dichotomous genres. Bob Dylan remains the primary symbol of 1960s folk, and American artists such as the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills and Nash, and Simon and Garfunkel continued the charge. In the UK, musicians such as Donovan, the Searchers, and Fairport Convention added British folk traditions to the movement. During this folk-rock boom, the Beatles released the acoustic guitar-heavy album Rubber Soul , often cited as their venture into the genre and heavily influenced by Dylan. However, the Beatles and folk rock had a reciprocal relationship, with the Beatles’ early work shaping the movement and, in turn, the music transforming John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s songwriting. A close examination of three Beatles albums – Beatles for Sale , Help! , and Rubber Soul – reveals this symbiotic relationship.