Anti-folk

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A style of music derived from folk music but with a self-mocking or ironic twist. uncountable

    "Largely an underground movement, anti-folk is a marriage of folk and punk rock, which looks to such artists as Woody Guthrie, Joey Ramone, and Dock Boggs for uniquely blended results. It largely, but not patently, rejects pop-infused folk. It appears to have first surfaced in the mid-eighties in the East Village of downtown New York City."

Example

More examples

"Largely an underground movement, anti-folk is a marriage of folk and punk rock, which looks to such artists as Woody Guthrie, Joey Ramone, and Dock Boggs for uniquely blended results. It largely, but not patently, rejects pop-infused folk. It appears to have first surfaced in the mid-eighties in the East Village of downtown New York City."

Etymology

From anti- + folk.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.