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PSYCHEDELIC FOLK

A music genre that originated in the 1960s through the blending of folk music and psychedelic rock or pop.

Psych folk generally favours acoustic instrumentation although it often incorporates other instrumentation. Chanting, early music and world music influences are often found in psych folk. Much like its rock counterpart, psychedelic folk is known for a peculiar, trance-like and atmospheric sound. Its lyrics are often concerned with such subjects as the natural world, love and beauty and try to evoke a state of mind associated with the effects of psychedelic drugs. However, drug associations are not as important to psych folk as they are to psychedelic rock.

Early Incredible String Band, Pearls Before Swine, DonovanFairport ConventionPentangle, T. Rex and, perhaps most prominantly, Syd Barrett are all prominent early examples of psych folk bands. It is notable that all of these artists except Pearls Before Swine are from Britain, where psychedelic music often had a stronger folk element.

New musical artists continue to draw on this tradition, although many of them would not necessarily describe their own music as psych folk. The latest generation of psych folk artists in the early to mid 2000s include Devendra Banhart.


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