Folk music means many different things, depending on who you are and what time period you're thinking of. For the purposes of this article, I am not referring to folk music in its traditional sense (which, in one of those clever little twists of life, is known as traditional music.) I mean the folk music of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Simon and Garfunkel, and so forth. Folk music was mainly an underground scene during the early sixties, being played at various cafes in areas populated by nouveaux artistes, as I like to say. During this time, folk music wasn't about the music. No, it was about the words, the message, the artist trying to express himself and the audience gratefully lapping it all up. This is when Bob Dylan and Simon and Garfunkel (well, if we're talking about words, just Simon) came into play, for they were true poets whose words delighted your soul. For this reason, the musical backgrounds were soft and calm, so as not to take the attention away from the words: a guitar, maybe a harmonica, but that was it. And an acoustic guitar at that. This doesn't necessarily mean that the music wasn't elegant; anyone who has heard "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" or "Bleeker Street" can attest to that. But certainly, it was not meant to be the main focus, just a welcome extra. However, all that was soon to change.
