In the late 50s and early 60s, popular music was far more stratified than it is now. The categories were rigid and there was very little crossover between genres. Indeed, as the new decade dawned (1960), each camp was growing more firmly entrenched.

Before the Cultural Revolution of the mid ‘60s, Jazz, R&B, Blues, pop, Rock & Roll, country, folk, and classical music followed set formulas which deviated very little from established norms. There was no ‘alt’ anything.

Folk music was about peace, love, civil rights. Jazz was for serious aficionados. Rock music was derided by both groups as the music of classless buffoons and malcontents.

But within a few years, thanks in large part to the influence of the Beatles and Bob Dylan, folk and rock music had not only combined to create a new form of powerful popular music; it became hugely successful and influential as well.

By 1964, Bob Dylan had already done much to revolutionize contemporary folk music by singing about topical issues, and later about abstract personal and romantic concerns in a poetic and uniquely expressive fashion.

Folk-rock was created when American artists like Dylan and The Byrds – undoubtedly two of the frontrunners in the evolution of the genre – began to respond to the British invasion of original, creative rock & roll bands such as The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Yardbirds and the Who’s adoption of American folk influences into their music with a uniquely ‘Americana’ attitude.

These young art students, intellectuals and savvy songwriters had been influenced by American folksingers and blues men of the 1930s, 40s and 50s like Leadbelly, Josh White, Big Bill Broonzy, Son House and Woody Guthrie.

Arguably, it was Bob Dylan who kick-started the folk-rock movement when he strapped on a black Fender Stratocaster at the Newport Folk Festival on July 25, 1965 and blew everyone away, literally.

Even though The Byrds’ version of Dylan’s song Mr. Tambourine Man had been released the previous month to growing critical acclaim, it was a slow climb to the top of the charts. Dylan’s incredibly loud, raucous and fairly loose set – featuring future members of The Band, Al Kooper, and speed freak guitar genius Michael Bloomfield – managed to offend many of the diehard folkies, including Pete Seeger, who tried to have him removed from the stage.

The ’65 Newport Festival was a pivotal moment in folk-rock. Dylan began moving into rockier territory around the same time as the Byrds on his Bringing It All Back Home album, released in March of 1965 – which was divided into ‘electric’ and ‘acoustic’ sides. But the simple fact that Dylan began writing personal songs with no social relevance was enough to enrage many purists.

Dylan’s conversion to rock & roll outraged much of his original constituency, but the loss was more than offset by a legion of new fans. His next 2 albums, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde were full-bore electric folk-rock records, merging Dyan’s intense, surrealistic poetry to a rock beat.

All three of Dylan’s albums from 1965 and ’66 made the Top Ten, as did the singles Like A Rolling Stone and Rainy Day Women No. 12 & 35.

Soon bands emerged from the burgeoning scene on the West Coast who took the tried and true classic folk formula and made it appeal to a wider audience – simply by adding a rhythm section.

Few casual folk fans realized that Dylan started out as a rock and roller, playing honky-tonk piano in his hometown of Hibbing, Minnesota with the likes of local favorite Bobby Vee and others – long before he became a folk legend. Few purists knew at the time that Dylan harbored a secret admiration for The Beatles and other British Invasion bands; a fascination that was mutual.

It was only a matter of time before one began to influence the other.

No discussion of the folk-rock phenomenon would be complete without a shout out to Electra Records, founded by Jac Holzman. Elektra Records played a major role in the development of contemporary folk, roots, and rock music from the 1950s through the late 70s. Holzman helped launch and relaunch the careers of many old bluesman and folk singers such as Theodore Bikel, Oscar Brand, Judy Collins, Tom Paxton, Phil Ochs and Josh White – who had been blacklisted in the USA during the McCarthy era.

Elektra had a suitably eclectic lineup of artists including Fred Neil, Tim Hardin, Ian & Sylvia and Richard and Mimi Farina – who were barely using electric instruments – in the folkiest corner. But in stark contrast Holzman signed garage bands like The Leaves and The Turtles…and later Love and The Doors.

The roots of folk-rock can be detected in a few pre-1965 recordings by artists like The Searchers and Jackie DeShannon, whose song “Needles And Pins” helped introduce the ringing, circular twelve-string guitar to popular music; a sound which became a major trademark of the genre.

DeShannon was one of the first female singer-songwriters to emerge who never got the respect or the credit she deserved. In the era before the concept of ‘singer-songwriters’ even existed, it was difficult to make a name for herself as a woman – although she did manage to snag a coveted opening spot for The Beatles on their 1965 American tour!

Jackie DeShannon was also one of the first major pop singers to be associated with Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles – soon to be a mecca for aspiring young artists of all kinds.

Prototypical British folk-rock can be heard on Manchester group The Animals’ superb bluesy interpretation of the traditional folk standard House Of The Rising Sun. Later bands such as Fairport Convention ran with the formula using classic English folk songs.

But it took The Byrds’ Mr. Tambourine Man to really kick things off. The song topped the pop charts in June, 1965. The Byrds were America’s premier folk-rock band. At heart, they were all ex-hardcore folkies who only picked up their electric instruments after seeing The Beatles in A Hard Day’s Night.

Lead guitarist Jim (later Roger) McGuinn’s chiming Rickenbacker 12-string set the sonic standard for the new genre. The group’s beautiful choral harmonies were also a major contributing factor to their success. The focus on vocals was a further throw-back to their folkie roots. Their often brilliant interpretations of songs by Dylan and Pete Seeger, along with traditional folk ballads, added further to their legitimacy among folk purists – as well as their enormous global success.

The formula clearly worked: more radio airplay equaled more sales, bigger audiences, more sex, better drugs…and of course, lots of expendable income.

Musically, the folk-rock genre was defined by clear vocal harmonies and crisp, clean, jangly sounding Rickenbacher 12-string guitars – with no overt distortion or effects.

When The Beatles released Rubber Soul in December ’65 it was a sign that the folk-rock gauntlet had been thrown down. The album contained several songs shamelessly influenced by the new sound.

Some of the key songs of the folk-rock cannon were recorded in Los Angeles with a group of session musicians known as ‘The Wrecking Crew.’ The Mama’s And The Papa’s California Dreamin’ was a clarion call to the masses at the height of the Summer of Love.

The MATP were led by another ex-folkie, John Phillips – who also wrote and produced Scott McKenzie’s maudlin top 10 hit If You’re Going To San Francisco (Be sure to wear flowers in your hair) in what was a slickly-produced variation of the folk-rock sound.

The Turtles’ were another band which relied heavily on the folk-rock sound, courtesy of the Wrecking Crew.

The irascible Sonny & Cher, the most commercially successful of the bunch, latched onto a few of the genre’s most saleable attributes on their run of smash hits. They later went on to successful solo careers; Bono went into (Republican) politics and died in a skiing accident; and of course the ghost of Cher is still with us today.

Los Angeles produced many excellent bands whose musicianship and stage presence far surpassed that of The Byrds. Most prominent was Buffalo Springfield, a volatile group featuring Neil Young and Stephen Stills; both were mercurial, egotistical, and very immature; but the music they produced was often brilliant.

The “San Francisco Sound” was more about long, rambling, acid-fueled jams; the L.A. sound was about slick, commercial, polished hits. The folk-rock movement was centered in Los Angeles in the mid-sixties and the songs were all about short, well-constructed pop confections; often utilizing the services of hot-shot session players like the Wrecking Crew.

Both Buffalo Springfield and Love were highly influential to later generations of folk-rock musicians.

Love never got the recognition they deserved during their short reign as L.A.’s hottest club band. But the group was strung out on smack most of the time and leader Arthur Lee refused to tour outside of Southern California; some say because he needed to be close to his dealer.

In any event, the music industry took note. At Columbia Studios, producer Tom Wilson overdubbed electric guitars, bass and drums to The Sound of Silence without the knowledge or consent of Paul Simon or Art Garfunkel, the songs’ composers. Nonetheless, the single topped the Billboard charts for a week upon its release and went Top Ten globally. Considered by many a classic folk-rock song, it was added to the National Recording Registry in the Library of Congress in 2012, along with the Sounds of Silence album.

In the late ‘60s, Doug Weston’s Troubadour nightclub on Santa Monica Boulevard in the heart of L.A. played a major role in launching the careers of such rock and folk singers as Elton John, Linda Ronstadt, The Byrds and Joan Baez as well as comedians like the Smothers Brothers, Cheech & Chong and Steve Martin.

The club was the nexus of a supportive artistic community as folk-rock evolved into a showcase for singer-songwriters like Jackson Browne, Tom Waits and Carole King – who debuted her classic You’ve Got A Friend there.

The Troubadour was a modern-day salon and meeting place for much of the best young talent of the generation. Starting with the legendary Monday Night open-mic ‘Hootenanny nights,’ the club became the most important showcase of contemporary folk and folk-rock talent in the country. Appearances there would guarantee major record sales for emerging artists.

As with any musical genre, folk-rock’s borders are difficult to define. Musically, it leans towards classic folk memes in its instrumentation; its playing and the vocal stylings and the choice of material. The original folk genre drew heavily on the music of Europe and North America, although there is no clear delineation of which culture was more influential.

Still, the ‘folk-rock’ label is not usually applied to pure rock music, which is rooted in blues-based or other black American roots music. Nor can it be applied to music with Cajun roots (Zydeco), or to music with non-European folk roots – typically classified as ‘World Music.’

But as the 60s gave way to the 70s and the country’s musical tastes began to mellow, folk-rock eventually morphed into country-rock and soft-rock, championed by later iterations of The Byrds (led by the pioneering Gram Parsons); Buffalo Springfield offshoots Poco and Loggins & Messina; Byrds offshoots the Flying Burrito Brothers, and of course the California soft-rock kings, Eagles; made up of the original members of Linda Ronstadt’s touring band.

The writing was on the wall for folk-rock in the US, as corporate money poured into the music scene along with mounds and mounds of cocaine and overblown egos. The genre’s popularity was its own undoing as hard drugs began to muddy the creative waters and further inflate the already immense egos of the artists involved. Eventually, the drugs and a changing marketplace put an end to the boom years of folk-rock…

But the genre began to re-emerge in the late 90s as ‘Alt-folk’ – which has seen something of a renaissance of late. Indie folk has made a resounding comeback thanks to the internet and crossover artists acknowledging the heavy influences of traditional folk music and Americana, as well as country music and bluegrass. The genre has steadily grown in popularity to include everything from Beirut , Midlake, Fleet Foxes, Archade Fire, Bon Iver, Decembrists and the Lumineers.

Currently Folk-Rock is enjoying a renaissance of sorts thanks to the quality of new music.