{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2023}} {{EngvarB|date=July 2023}} {{short description|Music genre}} {{Infobox music genre | name = Neofolk | other_names = *Apocalyptic folk (early) | stylistic_origins = * Folk * dark wave<ref name="Uecker">{{cite book |last= Uecker |first= Susann |title= Mit High-Heels im Stechschritt |publisher= Hirnkost Verlag |year= 2014 |isbn= 3-943-77453-8| quote= Die Dark-Wave-Szene unterteilt sich unter anderem in den klassischen Dark Wave, den Gothic-Rock, elektronische Gruppen oder auch den Neofolk.| page= | language= de}}</ref> * dark ambient * post-punk * traditional folk music * experimental * post-industrial | cultural_origins = 1980s, England | derivatives = Martial industrial | subgenrelist = | subgenres = | fusiongenres = | regional_scenes = | other_topics = * Anti-folk * folk punk * freak folk * gothic country * neopagan music * neoclassical darkwave }}
'''Neofolk''' (originally known as '''apocalyptic folk''') is a music genre that originally emerged during the 1980s through the British post-punk and industrial music scene. It is primarily characterized by acoustic instrumentation and draws influences from dark wave<ref name="Uecker"/> and post-industrial styles such as dark ambient.
== Characteristics == Neofolk blends elements of traditional and contemporary folk music with post-industrial and avant-garde influences, distinguishing it from mainstream folk traditions. It is commonly defined by the use of acoustic instruments. Artists incorporate influences from genres such as dark wave and dark ambient. Vocals may range from melodic singing to spoken word, with arrangements emphasizing atmosphere and mood over conventional song structures.<ref name="NeumanBraun">{{cite book |last1=Neumann-Braun |first1=Klaus |last2=Schmidt |first2=Axel |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=0ykjKReN-ygC&pg=PA280 |title= Die Welt der Gothics: Spielräume düster konnotierter Transzendenz| trans-title= The World of the Goths: Scopes of a darkly-connoted Transcendence |publisher=VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften |year=2008 |isbn=978-3-531-15880-8 |edition=2nd |page=280 |language=German| via= Google Books}}</ref> Most neofolk artists stem from Nordic countries, Germany and Italy. The style often incorporates lyrical themes drawn from paganism, nature, and European history and mythology.<ref name="NeumanBraun" />
== History ==
=== Forerunners === Neofolk has its origins in 1960s musical groups who began taking influence from traditional folk music.<ref name=NeumanBraun/> Folk musicians such as Vulcan's Hammer, Changes, Leonard Cohen, and Comus could be considered harbingers of the sound that later influenced the neofolk artists.{{Citation needed|date=January 2026}} Also the later explorations of the Velvet Underground's band members, specifically those of Nico, have been called a major influence on what later became neofolk.<ref name= "Webb 2007">{{cite book |last=Webb |first=Peter |year=2007 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cU6TAgAAQBAJ |title=Exploring the Networked Worlds of Popular Music: Milieux Cultures |location=London |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-95658-1 }}</ref>{{rp|60}}
=== 1980s–2000s: Origins === [[Image:Sol Invictus Live.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Sol Invictus in live concert]]Neofolk originated in the 1980s, with bands from the dark wave,<ref name="Uecker"/> post-punk and industrial music scenes, including Death In June, Current 93 and Sol Invictus, who began taking influence from this sound.<ref name=NeumanBraun/><ref name= "Webb 2007" />{{rp|60}} The sound was embraced by Swans on their early 1990s albums such as ''Love of Life'' (1992),<ref>{{cite magazine| url= https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/features/articles/freaking-folk-out-swans-early-90s-classics-rediscovered|title=Freaking folk out: Swans' early 90s classics rediscovered|first=Tamlin|last=Magee|date=December 4, 2015|magazine=The Line of Best Fit|access-date=March 7, 2017}}</ref> by the time of their 1997 disbandment, they had become what ''Exclaim!'' writer Dimitri Nasrallah called the "leading lights in the early 2000's neo-folk movement". The embrace of the genre continued into the releases of lead vocalist Michael Gira's subsequent band Angels of Light.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Nasrallah |first1= Dimitri |title=Michael Gira From Uncompromising Swans to Ethereal Angels of Light |url=https://exclaim.ca/Music/article/michael_gira-from_uncompromising_swans_to_ethereal_angels_of_light |website=Exclaim! |access-date=22 December 2024}}</ref> During the late 1990s, the sound of the genre began to be embraced by bands who had previously played black metal, such as Empyrium and Haggard.<ref name=NeumanBraun/>
As a descriptor, the term "apocalyptic folk" predates neofolk and was used by Current 93's David Tibet to describe the music of his band during the late 1980s and early 1990s.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rehill |first=Anne |url=https://www.google.com/search?hl=de&q=Hall+of+Sermon#q=Neofolk&hl=en&tbm=bks&ei=E5QMT-P4E87tsgb0--3lBA&start=40&sa=N&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=4925f700bfe318b3&biw=1280&bih=649 |title=The Apocalypse Is Everywhere: A Popular History of America's Favorite Nightmare |publisher=Greenwood Publishing |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-313-35438-0 |page=205}}</ref> Initially, Tibet did not intend to imply connection with the folk music genre; rather, that Current 93 was made by "apocalyptic folk": in other words, apocalyptic people.<ref name= APOCALYPTICFOLK>{{cite web |url= http://www.popmatters.com/music/interviews/current-93-060516.shtml |title= The Apocalyptic Visions of Current 93 |website= popmatters.com| first= Jennifer |last= Kelly |publisher= SPIN Music Group, BUZZMEDIA| date= 2012| url-status= dead| archiveurl= https://archive.today/20121209071022/http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/current-93-060516#selection-4047.24-4049.40| archivedate= 2012-12-09| access-date= 2025-12-28}}</ref> Tibet and Current 93 produced some covers of traditional English folk songs, and Tibet himself was a great advocate for reclusive English folk singer Shirley Collins.<ref>{{Cite web |date=10 February 2014 |title=Folk singer Shirley Collins performs first show in 35 years |url= http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/feb/10/folk-singer-shirley-collins-35-years-union-chapel |access-date=6 May 2020 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}</ref> Other vague terms sometimes used to describe artists of this genre include '''dark folk''' and '''pagan folk'''. These terms are umbrella terms that also describe various other forms of unrelated music.<ref name="Uecker" />
==Culture== A majority of artists within the neofolk genre use archaic, cultural and literary references. Local traditions and indigenous beliefs are also heavily portrayed, as are esoteric and historical topics.<ref name="NeumanBraun" /> Various forms of neopaganism and occultism play a part in the themes touched upon by many modern and original neofolk artists. Runic alphabets, heathen European sites and other means of expressing an interest in the ancient and ancestral occur often in neofolk music. The sociologist Peter Webb describes this as a legacy from romantic poetry and a reaction against the rationalism of the Enlightenment. Webb writes that for bands like Sol Invictus, this leads to "a type of esoteric spirituality where paganism comes to the fore because of its respect for nature, its openness about sexuality, and its rituals and ceremonies guided by the seasons".<ref name= "Webb 2007" />{{rp|100}} Aesthetically, references to this subject occur within band names, album artwork, clothing and various other means of artistic expression. This has led to some forefathers of the genre and current artists within the genre attributing it to being an aspect of a broader neopagan revival.<ref name= DOUGLASREV>{{cite web| last= Powell| first= Erin| year= 2005| url= http://www.deathinjune.org/modules/mediawiki/index.php/Interview:2005-Heathen_Harvest |title= Interview with Douglas Pearce| via= deathinjune.org| quote= I'm very happy about that because I see Death In June as part of a European cultural revival. I'm pleased that the Old Gods are being resurrected, for want of a better word. Old symbols. I feel very pleased that I am a part of that process and that I have had influence. At this stage in the game, so to speak, it's not false modesty to say that I am content with my influence. |archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20071018080254/http://deathinjune.org/modules/mediawiki/index.php/Interview%3A2005-Heathen_Harvest |archivedate= 18 October 2007 | access-date= }}</ref> David Tibet of Current 93, one of the most influential neofolk bands, regards himself as a Christian, but he believes that truth always is hidden and is more interested in apocalyptic and apocryphal literature than any Christian canon.<ref name= "Keenan 2003">{{cite book |last=Keenan |first=David |author-link=David Keenan |year=2003 |title=England's Hidden Reverse: A Secret History of the Esoteric Underground |location=London |publisher=SAF Publishing |isbn=978-0-946719-40-2}}</ref>{{rp|148, 178}} During a period of heavy amphetamine and LSD use in the 1980s, he began to revere the children's character Noddy as a Gnostic deity.<ref name= "Keenan 2003" />{{rp|152}}
Many bands use metaphors, sometimes borrowing terms such as Ernst Jünger's ''Waldgänger'' and using fascist symbols and slogans, which has led to an association of the genre with the far-right, though this is contested by fans.<ref>{{cite journal |last= Shekhovtsov |first= Anton |title= Apoliteic music: Neo-Folk, Martial Industrial and ‘metapolitical fascism’ |journal= Patterns of Prejudice |volume= 43 |issue= 5 |publisher= |pages= 431���457 | doi= 10.1080/00313220903338990 |date= December 2009}}</ref> References to occult, pagan and politically far-right figures and movement are often intentionally ambiguous{{citation needed|date=January 2026}}. Stefanie von Schnurbein has described the genre's approach to these types of material as an "elitist Nietzschean masquerade" which expresses a "(neo-)romantic art-religious attitude".<ref>{{cite book |last=Schnurbein |first=Stefanie von |author-link=Stefanie von Schnurbein |year=2014 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LMDWBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA254 |chapter=Germanic Neo-Paganism – A Nordic Art-Religion? |editor1-last=Schlehe |editor1-first=Judith |editor2-last=Sandkühler |editor2-first=Evamaria |title=Religion, Tradition and the Popular: Transcultural Views from Asia and Europe |location=Bielefeld |publisher=Transcript Verlag |isbn=978-3-8376-2613-1| pages= 254–255}}</ref> Some bands have stated opposition to the perceived fascist apologia and themes in the genre and the related genre of martial industrial.<ref>{{Cite web| url= https://www.vice.com/en/article/gaylord-anti-fascist-black-metal-interview/| title=Unmasking Gaylord, Black Metal's Latest Anti-Fascist Enigma |last1=Kelly |first1=Kim| last2= Joyce| first2=Colin |date= 21 August 2018|website= Noisey| via= Vice.com|language=en-US|access-date=2025-12-28}}</ref>
==Related genres==
===Martial industrial=== {{Main|Martial industrial}} '''Martial industrial''' (also known as '''military pop''') is a genre developed very closely to neofolk and includes militaristic or political themes.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zhDVUt-UdwoC&pg=PA133 |title=Interdisziplinäres Kolloquium zur Geschlechterforschung: Die Beiträge |trans-title= Interdisciplinary Colloquium on Gender Research: the Contributions |editor-first=Ilse |editor-last=Nagelschmidt |editor2-first=Kristin |editor2-last= Wojke |editor3-first=Britta |editor3-last=Borrego |first=Dunja |last=Brill |chapter= Transgression ohne Queer – die Inszenierung martialischer Männlichkeit als 'Anti-Drag' in der Industrial- und Extreme Metal-Szene [Transgression without 'Queer' – the Staging of martial Masculinity as being 'Anti-Drag' in the Industrial and Extreme Metal Scene]|year=2010 |page=133 |language= de |publisher=Peter Lang|isbn=9783631601266 }}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== * {{cite book| last1=Diesel |first1=Andreas |last2=Gerten |first2=Dieter |title=Looking for Europe: Neofolk und Hintergründe |language=de |publisher=Index Verlag |location=Zeltingen-Rachtig |year=2007 |isbn=978-3-936878-02-8 }} * {{cite book |last=Fava |first=Sérgio |year=2012 |chapter-url=https://sheffieldphoenix.com/product/anthems-of-apocalypse-popular-music-and-apocalyptic-thought/ |editor-last=Partridge |editor-first=Christopher |title=Anthems of Apocalypse: Popular Music and Apocalyptic Thought |publisher=Sheffield Phoenix Press |pages=72–89 |chapter=When Rome Falls, Falls the World: Current 93 and Apocalyptic Folk |isbn=978-1-907534-34-8}} * {{cite journal |last=François |first=Stéphane |author-link=Stéphane François |year=2007 |translator-last=Godwin |translator-first=Ariel |title=The Euro-Pagan Scene: Between Paganism and Radical Right |journal=Journal for the Studies of Radicalism |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=35–54 |doi=10.1353/jsr.2008.0006 |issn=1930-1189 |jstor=41887576 |s2cid=144508250 }} * {{cite book |last=Saunders |first=Robert A. |year=2020 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E2XMDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT43 |chapter=''Völkisch'' vibes: Neofolk, place, politics, and pan-European nationalism |editor-last=Nieguth |editor-first=Tim |title=Nationalism and Popular Culture |location=London |publisher=Routledge |pages=36–58 |doi=10.4324/9780429321764-4 |isbn=978-0-429-32176-4 |s2cid=242993887 }}
{{Folk music}} {{Industrial music-footer}} {{Goth subculture}} {{Experimental music genres}}
Category:Neofolk Category:Dark wave Category:English styles of music Category:Folk music genres