*Bill slinks back out of the shadows to reply to being tweaked*

Scenario 9: There is a BIG island found nearby for the tourists, with Disney-like rides and canned music which is re-written and re-covered every two weeks to fulfill the need for constant change, while the dull old 'trad' folkies sit on their porches on their tiny island with sagging docks and no "Top 40" to tell them what is popular.....and smile as the occasional sound from their neighbors wafts across the water.

(you know, PoppaGator....it is true that "The oldest and most traditional songs we know of were once new,..."...but they weren't new in quite the same way songs are new now. There is a LOT more that makes a song fit the notion of folk/trad than age and/or fame. Style, subject matter, tune type,etc...etc.. maybe a dozen characteristics,depending on how you count, are just as relevant to determine a category...and of course some little buggers are kinda slippery in the middle. But we ALL know that "Barbary Allen" and "Sweet Betsy from Pike" are different from "Purple People Eaters" and "Rock Around the Clock"...and yes, from "Toot, Toot Tootsie", neat as that song is. Once you have asked yourself just how they all differ, you'll be able to use categories in a REALLY meaningful manner, rather than somehow assuming that all the songs you 'like' must eventually be lumped together, just because "the light is better down here"....*grin*)

I repeat, for maybe the 20th time....in order for a category to be useful and meaningful, it MUST not be so broad as to encompass almost everything. You don't do Gregorian Chant at a Bluegrass festival, and Dixieland Jazz fanatics can tell if you try to slip Reggae into their mix. 'Taint a matter of 'bad' or 'good'...just of keeping some semblance of clarity about it all..