Folk music originated from England. Music-Folk.com talks about how this type of music has existed for over a thousand years. It was common amongst the common people, as a form of story telling. This type of music would talk about legends and events that went around. This was partly because they had no way of publishing books, so telling stories through song became a big thing. It’s believed that Folk music was revived in 1928, in Asheville, North Carolina. Although, as far as we know it became more popular again in the 20th century.
Source: http://www.music-folk.com/the-history-of-folk-music/
The History of Music Over The Years 