English folk–rock, a former progressive rock music style, remains a stimulus for further change in folk music and has enabled English folk–rock to become regarded as popular music by a new audience with diverse musical tastes. From musicological and historical perspectives, this book maintains that folk music performance continues to be influenced by rock and other popular music styles. From a cultural studies perspective, this book also demonstrates how the popularity of folk music presented at world music festivals has stimulated significant growth in folk music audiences since the mid–1990s and consequently the UK is experiencing a new phase of revivalism – the third folk revival.
The book contains contributions from Martin Carthy (The Imagined Village), Simon Nicol (Fairport Convention), Ashley Hutchings (The Albion Band), Gerry Conway (Fairport Convention) and Rick Kemp (Steeleye Span).