Hi Azizi,

I'm tired and on my way to bed now, but my thing is to ask not 'what' folk is, but 'who' are the folks in 'folk'?

Is yesterday's 'folk' transformed sans it's cultural and racial baggage magically when it is deemed 'world' or 'roots' music instead?

Are the terms 'world' music and 'roots' music mere euphemisms for what was formerly Europe's and British North America's (ie 'non-Western') 'exotic other'?

For the sake of the discussion, here is a link to an article by David Byrne of Talking Heads fame, from the late 90s, when these new 'music' terms were being coined by white English men (like David Byrne), to distinguish the music of non-Anglo music from the music of mostly of African and Asian cultures that had immigrant communities from the former colonies in Britain:

David Byrne on 'World' Music

So you get some idea of where I'm coming from, I belong to a radio network here in MN that ISN'T the corporado radio network that sends out 'Prairie Home Companion' every week (and discontinued some great folk music programs this month, when it gobbled it's biggest indie public radio competitor in Minnesota). I belong to the Minnesota radio network that calls itself (to distinguish ourselves from--spit--Minnesota Public Radio, or MPR) IPR, or Independent Public Radio.

Our latest mottos include: "Radio so diverse, even we don't understand half of it" and "Still programmed by people not programs".