The artist that I decided to focus on for my presentation in this class was the group Mumford and Sons. This group was formed in London, England in 2007. The group consists of 4 musicians playing a wide range of instruments. The members are Marcus Mumford, Winston Marshall, Ben Lovett, and Ted Dwane. Together they play everything from the electric guitar, the banjo, the synthesizer, and the mandolin. You see these many instruments because the genres that the group falls under is Neo-Folk, Folk Rock, and Alternative Rock. All of these genres can find their way into the popular music stratosphere. Out of the 3 albums that the band has produced, around 6 songs can be found on popular radio stations. This is a common trend among alternative rock groups. Alternative Rock has because a popular genre among millennials. Alternative rock came out of the punk-rock and new wave stylistic origins. The genre started in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s from the United Kingdom and the United States. The genre derived out of independent music and underground music. Alternative music came from underground young artists. It wasn’t until the late 80’s and throughout the 90’s that alternative rock came into the limelight. Popularity from bands like Nirvana and Matchbox Twenty led the way for bands like Mumford and Sons to emerge from the alternative scene and into the pop world. Other alternative rock groups that I found popularity in the 2000’s and today include Arcade Fire and the Killers. However, like I said before, Mumford and Sons are not the sole embodiment of the alternative rock genre. Their instrumentation that Mumford and Sons typically uses leads them to be primarily a neo-folk and folk-rock band. The genre of Neo-folk derives out of rock and folk. Neofolk holds mostly acoustic styles, but there can also be a mixture of other instruments like piano, and other rock elements. Folk rock came out of the 1960’s when the rise of rock was happening but there were still acoustic elements to the music. Traditional folk music was spun with elements of rock and created a unique genre of music. Some of the most popular Folk rock artists include Bob Dylan. Other bands including The Beatles experimented in the genre as well. This folk-rock genre bleeds into other genres and bands often experiment within the genre. The genre popularized the acoustic sound within popularized music. This sound was lost in the 2000’s and what acoustic sounds did exist blended into and fell under the genre of country music. Mumford and Sons helped to bring back the acoustic style that popular music can have. This led to more and more artists coming into the realm of popular music like The Lumineers, Vance Joy, and Hozier. Mumford and Sons popularity also encouraged the acoustic sound with other artists that exist in popular music. They found a way to stick with their genre and be authentic all while finding popularity within the masses, encouraging growth of the alternative rock and folk genres.