Popular Folk Songs
Popular folk songs are the 25 tracks that define the folk tradition as most listeners know it, a list that runs from the traditional ballads of the 1960s folk revival to the singer-songwriter standards of the 1970s and the modern indie folk records of the last 20 years. It is a short, well-tested map of the genre, and it is the fastest way for a new listener to hear what the small-label folk scene is built on.
The list below mixes traditional songs, recorded standards and modern indie folk records, and it is ordered so that it builds an ear rather than simply ranking hits. Each row names the song, the artist most associated with it, and the year the defining version appeared. The full context, including where these songs sit in the indie folk and acoustic folk branches of the scene, is on the genre pages of this site.
What makes a folk song popular
What makes a folk song popular is that it is a song the community keeps singing, and a song that survives 3 or more generations of performers is a true standard rather than a one-hit record. The traditional ballads on this list predate any single artist; they were carried by performers, and their popularity comes from repetition in clubs, on radio and on the small-label recordings that put them on vinyl and CD. A recorded folk song, by contrast, becomes popular when a named performer's version catches on, and that is the second half of the list. Either way the route to an audience is the same: a small label presses the record, and the folk circuit spreads it.
The traditional and revival standards
The traditional and revival standards are the first 15 songs a listener should learn, because they are the building blocks the later records borrow from. They are short, in 4 common tunings, and most run under 3 minutes. The table below groups them with the recorded standards and the modern indie folk picks, all in one place so a listener can see the line from the 1960s to the present.
| Song | Artist | Year | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blowin' in the Wind | Bob Dylan | 1963 | Revival standard |
| House of the Rising Sun | The Animals | 1964 | Traditional ballad |
| The Times They Are a-Changin' | Bob Dylan | 1964 | Revival standard |
| Where Have All the Flowers Gone | Peter, Paul and Mary | 1962 | Traditional ballad |
| A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall | Bob Dylan | 1963 | Revival standard |
| If I Had a Hammer | Peter, Paul and Mary | 1963 | Songwriter classic |
| Turn! Turn! Turn! | The Byrds | 1965 | Revival standard |
| Knockin' on Heaven's Door | Bob Dylan | 1973 | Songwriter classic |
| Take This Waltz | Judy Collins | 1968 | Songwriter classic |
| The Boxer | Simon and Garfunkel | 1969 | Songwriter classic |
| Tangled Up in Blue | Bob Dylan | 1975 | Songwriter classic |
| Cathedral | John Prine | 1971 | Singer-songwriter |
| Angel from Montgomery | Jackson Browne | 1977 | Singer-songwriter |
| The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down | The Band | 1969 | Folk rock |
| Woodstock | Joni Mitchell | 1970 | Revival standard |
The modern indie folk picks
The modern indie folk picks are the second 10 songs, and they show the same form rebuilt on the small-label model from the 2000s onward. These are the records a listener will find on the independent labels that make up the scene, and they run 3 to 7 minutes long, with the longer songs giving the form its room to breathe. They are the current face of popular folk, and they are the bridge from the revival standards to what is being pressed today.
| Song | Artist | Year | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flume | Bon Iver | 2007 | Indie folk |
| Mykonos | Fleet Foxes | 2008 | Indie folk |
| Wreck | Iron & Wine | 2005 | Acoustic folk |
| Blackbird | Phoebe Bridgers | 2017 | Singer-songwriter |
| Motion Sickness | Phoebe Bridgers | 2017 | Singer-songwriter |
| Liars in Altitudes | Julien Baker | 2015 | Indie folk |
| Cherry Wine | Hozier | 2014 | Indie folk |
| Re: Stacks | Lucy Dacus | 2016 | Indie folk |
| Little Talks | Fleet Foxes | 2012 | Indie folk |
| 7 | Sufjan Stevens | 2015 | Indie folk |
How to use the list
How to use the list is to hear it in the order given, so the traditional side establishes the tunings and the modern side shows the form as it is recorded now. A listener should give each side at least 10 minutes before forming a view, because the older songs sound plain until the newer records show what they became. The list is a starting point for the wider scene, and the pages on indie folk and acoustic indie folk go deeper into the genre and the artists who carry it. For a listener who wants the faith-based side of the form, the Christian indie folk page covers the songs and labels that carry a spiritual lyric in the same acoustic style.