Well, maybe some of my comments were out of line, but shimrod has certainly allayed any worries about that by responding in kind. No I don't necessarily "prefer rock music". I'm not ageist. I'm not prolier than thou-(which is a bit of a cliche btw) or snobbish. I'm certainly not anti-intellectual. I'm just very aware that in the last twenty years or so folk musicians have suddenly lost the right to compose songs and tunes and call them folk. In many cases this is the case even when the songs have been around for quite a long time and people are learning them and passing them on. At the same time, songs like some of the Child ballads have been 'rediscovered' and hailed as wonderful folk songs. If the child ballads haven't been passed on orally for some time then (by your own definitions)they're certainly not folk. Some people on the folk scene seem to have a strange sort of "my song is older and longer than yours" complex. They sneer at perfectly good songs because they're not old or contain references to things the audience has experienced. Now, I don't mind Child ballads. In fact I quite enjoy a few of them. That really shouldn't mean I can't enjoy singing crazy man michael or some Christy Moore song at a sing around or session or whatever and it doesn't mean they aren't folk. The repeated comment about zebras and giraffes is totally irrelevant. We're talking about one process starting with one set of songs and continuing with more. If you want to argue that 'modern folk' or whatever has evolved into a different species I'll at least listen to your point. If you want to claim they are completely different and were never really connected you need to go back and look at the situation again. My take is they are continuing the tradition. Alot of them may fall by the wayside just as a lot did in the 1890s or whenever else you choose to look at. A few songs however will survive cos people like them and keep singing them to each other. A natural process that's been going on since time immemorial. Surely something you 'traditionalists' should be protecting?