Over the past several years the US music industry has been moving more and more towards the European style of house music and techno. From artists such as Swedish House Mafia, Afrojack, Avicii, amongst others have done well to influence American music. More and more artists have worked to include more synthesizers and house beats in their own songs, as seen in Watch the Throne album by Kanye and Jay Z. But one area that has been overlooked in this Euro boom has been folk indie rock. With artists such as The Lumineers, Mumford and Sons and Of Monsters and Men, folk indie has actually been quite popular in its own right. All three artists have enjoyed smashing success particularly in 2012 and so far 2013.

      The Lumineers, originally based out of Denver, Colorado released their first studio album “The Lumineers “in April 2012. The album went platinum and peaked at #2 on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart. Most people recognize the hit single “Ho Hey” which peaked at #3 on the Billboard Top 100 singles and #1 on The Top 100 US alternative singles. But songs such as “Stubborn Love”, and “Flowers in Your hair” have got The Lumineers as one of the top folk indie groups around.

      Mumford and Sons is a British group that’s been around since 2007 but has really started to gain popularity in the US over the last 2 years. Their album “Babel” released in the US in September 2012, won Album of the Year at the 2013 Grammys, a truly amazing feat and testament to how far this genre and band has come. Songs such as “Little Lion Man” (actually off their 2009 album “Sigh No More”) and “I Will Wait” (“Babel”) have picked up serious radio time over the past year.

      Finally, Of Monsters and Men, the group from Iceland that was formed in 2010 has also recently burst onto the US music scene. The song “Little Talks” was actually released back in 2011 and peaked at #20 in the Billboard Top 100 singles, and was for a time #1 on the Top 100 US alternative songs. Their album “My Head Is an Animal” released in 2012 to North America peaked at #6 on the Top 200 albums. Additionally, the band recently played at Coachella, not bad for the little group from Iceland.
 

      Overall, folk indie rock appears to be doing quite well in a time where house music, hip hop and pop music continue to dominate all the radio time. Despite all the hype around Ultra Music Festival, Electric Zoo, among other mega house concerts, these 3 groups have had great success globally, including the US despite not making all the splashy headlines here.​

 

Written by: Zubair Khan