It has been prolific since the early 1970s and can be seen as a key foundation of the development of successful mainstream Celtic bands and popular musical performers, as well as creating important derivatives through further fusions.
It was in Ireland that Celtic rock was first clearly evident as musicians attempted to apply the use of traditional and electric music to their own cultural context.
By the end of the 1960s Ireland already had perhaps the most flourishing folk music tradition and a growing blues and pop scene, which provided a basis for Irish rock.
[6] These developments ran in parallel with the burgeoning folk revival in Ireland that included groups such as Planxty and the Bothy Band.
[8] Moving Hearts, formed in 1981 by former Planxty members Christy Moore and Donal Lunny, followed the pattern set by Horslips in combining Irish traditional music with rock, and also added elements of jazz to their sound.
One of Scotland's most commercially successful and fondly-remembered rock acts, Big Country, also incorporated the influence of traditional Scottish music into their songs.
[14] From 1972 he began to play folk rock with a band including guitarists Dan Ar Braz and Gabriel Yacoub.
After an extensive career that included a stint playing as part of Fairport Convention in 1976, Ar Braz formed the pan-Celtic band Heritage des Celtes, who managed to achieve mainstream success in France in the 1990s.
With acts such as Ar Log touring the world with new renditions of "traditional Welsh folk music, haunting love songs, harp airs, melodic dance tunes and rousing sea shanties".
Jarman would later be credited by the musician Gruff Rhys with "severing ties with Celtic folk and serving as a bridge to a new wave of post punk".
[25] Ireland proved particularly fertile ground for punk bands in the mid-1970s, including Stiff Little Fingers, The Undertones, The Radiators From Space, The Boomtown Rats and The Virgin Prunes.
From Canada are bands like The Mahones, Enter the Haggis, Great Big Sea, The Real Mckenzies and Spirit of the West.
These groups were naturally influenced by American forms of music, some containing members with no Celtic ancestry and commonly singing in English.
Whereas in England folk rock, after initial mainstream recognition, subsided into the status of a sub-cultural soundtrack, in many Celtic communities and nations it has remained at the forefront of musical production.
Similar circumstances can be seen in Scotland albeit with a delay in time while Celtic rock culture developed, before bands like Runrig could achieve international recognition.
[28] In the 1990s, bands like Orthodox Celts from Serbia[29] and Belfast Food from Croatia popularized Celtic rock further, influencing a number of younger acts, like Irish Stew of Sindidun.