That label for a time of "great social and political import, is often credited to Dave Van Ronk. At least he mentions it in his autobiography "The mayor of Macdougal street", so who am I to contradict him?
Of course before this point in time there was folk music being created and recorded for many years and was often called "roots" music, which included bluegrass, gospel, old time music, jug bands, Appalachian folk, blues, Cajun, English, Irish and Scottish ballads and Native American music. Thanks to John and Alan Lomax many of these songs are archived when he did years of field recording in the 30s and 40s, but that's another story.
Meanwhile, Beatniks! Which begat Coffeehouses! Oh the horror.
So in the late 50s Anti-establishment, socially aware youth heard something happening here and bought guitars, banjos, autoharps and harmonicas and started learning a bunch of traditional songs. Pretty soon they realized all you need is 3 or 4 chords, and you could write your own songs. Taking a look around at the conditions of the world, (civil rights, the cold war, inequality, imperialism, worker exploitation, just to name a few) and bingo, The Great Folk Scare was birthed. It took a while for the baby to become the precocious prodigy called the singer songwriter but when it did; holy crap, the movement was ready for prime time.
Incubated in the coffeehouses of Greenwich Village and the green pastures of Harvard University (and lots of other places), popular folk music first started playing on AM radio (remember them?) Acts like the Kingston Trio, The Journeymen, Peter, Paul and Mary, Harry Belafonte, The Limelighters and of course Joan Baez and Bob. Soon FM radio was playing this and a whole slew of new talent was getting airplay. Donovan, Judy Collins, Joni, and many, many more. There was even a TV show "Hootenanny" which brought in the tamer artists of the Scare right into our living rooms!
The great singer songwriters honed their craft during this time, Jackson Brown, Joni, James Taylor, Roger McGuinn, David Crosby and dozens more helped along by the likes of Tom Rush and Tom Paxton.
And The Great Folk Scare begat folk rock and protest music and hippies and there was no auto tune and it was good.
I started this after finally (after 50 years) getting the key change for "Tear Down the Walls" by Vince Martin and Fred Neil, two more of the actors in "The Great Folk Scare".