Like any group with a lot of shared knowledge, folkies can be insular - but this doesn't mean that they're not friendly, accessible, extrovert, welcoming etc.

People who are exposed to it, even if they've never heard it before, can enjoy it, get up and join in. Great! That IS getting new people involved, isn't it? Everyone worries about the 'death of folk music' and so on - why don't we all just chill out, accept that fact that it isn't dying out, and if it was, evolution is something you can't control, so just enjoy it while it lasts!

Anyway, if the music we get in the top 40 defines pop, thank God that folk isn't popular!