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Adam Green of The Moldy Peaches

The music sub genre known as anti-folk (or antifolk) takes the earnestness of politically charged 1960s music and subverts it into something else. Although it is still highly debated exactly what the defining characteristics are, which vary from one artist to the next, it is fairly accepted that the music tends to sound raw or experimental, and generally mocks the seriousness and pretension of the established mainstream music scene and also mocks itself.

In 1984, a singer-songwriter going by the name Lach started an after-hours club—the Fort—on New York's Lower East Side, because the booker at a local folk club had told him his music was "too punk".^[1] The Fort's opening coincided with the New York Folk Festival, so Lach dubbed his own event the New York Antifolk Festival. The original Fort was shut down in 1985 and moved from location to location, including Sophie's and Chameleon, before winding up in the back room of the Sidewalk Café in 1993, where it has stayed to this day. The Antifolk Festival continues to be held semi-annually in the East Village (outlasting the original Folk Festival).

A number of well-known music artists spent pre-fame time in the New York anti-folk scene, including Beck, Ani DiFranco, Michelle Shocked, Regina Spektor, Nellie McKay, Suzanne Vega, and The Moldy Peaches.^[1]

In recent years Antifolk has spread beyond the US. The UK Antifolk scene (largely centered around London and Brighton) has established its own identity, one that has been explored well in a 6 page feature in the September 2007 issue of Plan_B_(magazine). Plan B magazine also held an antifolk night at the Huw Stevens curated Sŵn in Cardiff november 2007. UK Antifolk began in London with shows promoted by Sgt.Buzfuz and the lo-fi musician Filthy Pedro and David Cronenberg's Wife. The Brighton scene was quick to follow, curated primarily by Larry Pickleman and Mertle. Other key figures within the UK Antifolk community include the politically charged JJ Crash, Spinmaster Plantpot, Lucy Joplin and outsider musician Paul Hawkins.

Antifolk-influenced acts such as the Bobby McGees, Milk Kan and Emmy the Great have begun to pick up regular national radio airplay and media coverage and in August 2006 Timeout Magazine called Antifolk "One of London's hottest subcultures". The first AntiFolk UK compilation album (entitled 'Up the Anti') was released in 2007, mastered by Kramer (Producer of Jeffrey Lewis, Galaxie 500, Butthole Surfers).

• Alternative country
• Psych folk
• Urban Folk
• List of anti-folk bands and musicians
• Anticomp Folkilation

• Morning Star article on AntiFolk
• Time Out London feature on AntiFolk

• Antifolk.net
• AntiFolk UK (London)
• AntiFolk UK (Brighton)
• antifolk @ Chameleon