Now that we live in an age of instant worldwide communication, the creation and development of "folk" songs -- maybe it would make more sense to discuss "idiomatic" or "vernacular" songs -- will never be the same.

I really like the description of the process posted by Lonesome EJ in the initial message, and I think his "Step 1" was right on the money, despite the criticisms some have offered. Every song was written by some human being at some time, and it has to have been "popular" in some sense to have survived at all.

For better or for worse, it is practically impossible today for a song to be written and then to be taken up and sung by many other singers without emerging into a very large arena. Songs that in the past might have developed within a small region or within a distinct social class cannot stay quite so isolated today. If they appeal to many folks at all outide the writer's immediate family, they're gonna go out on MP3 and privately burned CD-R to a widespread community of likeminded folks (e.g., Mudcatters), even if they don't make it to the commerical recording studio.

Whatever the folk process may have been until now, it's evolving into something quite different today. Any more thoughts on the folk process in the 21st century? (I'm sure the part about memory lapses will never change -- with people living longer, there'll be more nd more old-timers around to contribute to that process -- but there are so many other factors at work today.)