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  • folk rock
    folk rock
    noun
    a style of music combining characteristics of rock-'n'-roll and folk music, often exemplified by protest songs to a rock-'n'-roll beat, and at its height of popularity in the late 1960s.
  • folk-rock
    folk-rock
    noun
    a style of rock music influenced by folk, including traditional material arranged for electric instruments
Synonyms

folk rock

American  
Or folk-rock

noun

  1. a style of music combining characteristics of rock-'n'-roll and folk music, often exemplified by protest songs to a rock-'n'-roll beat, and at its height of popularity in the late 1960s.


folk-rock British  

noun

  1. a style of rock music influenced by folk, including traditional material arranged for electric instruments

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Etymology

Origin of folk rock

First recorded in 1965–70; folk + rock 2

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Woman of the moment Sabrina Carpenter kicked off the show by performing a duet alongside Paul Simon of folk rock duo Simon and Garfunkel.

From BBC Feb. 17, 2025

There’s a lot of folk rock, even a lot of punk.

From Los Angeles Times Jun. 6, 2024

It is an ambitious record, written by Hudson with her close collaborators Linda Perry, Johan Carlsson, and her fiance Danny Fujikawa, spanning folk, rock and synth, soulful ballads and big pop songs.

From Seattle Times Apr. 17, 2024

With his brother Michael Bacon, he fronts a band, the Bacon Brothers, whose style is a blend of alt country and soulful folk rock.

From Salon Nov. 28, 2022

As one of the originators of the post-revolutionary genre nueva trova, he combined elements of Cuban son and guaracha with soul, jazz and folk rock.

From New York Times Nov. 23, 2022

On a dreary February afternoon in Chinatown, Ben Lovett, pianist and keyboardist of the British folk-rock group Mumford & Sons, was hours away from releasing his band’s sixth album, “Prizefighter.”

From Los Angeles Times Mar. 5, 2026

The folk-rock style protest song, which namechecks both the late Pretti and Good, contains the lyrics: "We'll remember the names of those who died / On the streets of Minneapolis".

From BBC Jan. 29, 2026

Sometimes, it recalls the English and Irish folk-rock of the early ’70s, when the region’s traditional music was updated with drums and electric guitars.

From The Wall Street Journal Dec. 2, 2025

Branding his concerts as expressions of "faith, family and homeland", the folk-rock icon has dismissed claims of pro-Nazi sympathies as "entirely inappropriate and unacceptable".

From Barron's Dec. 1, 2025

He had gray hair that he kept in a ponytail, and had been a member of a famous folk-rock band in the ’80s that my dad, for one, had never heard of.

From "Auggie & Me" by R. J. Palacio

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