In the 50s and 60s many artists from the UK were inspired by the fine styles of music they heard coming from the USA. And although few had any direct experience of the folk or circumstances that produced this music - because of the genuine respect for it and a real need to make it - the best of them were (over time) able to add some elements of their own which in turn fed back and enriched the whole of music making.

One can only hope that the same thing will happen with music emanating from other parts of the world. I suggest that it will happen best without attempts to market these forms of music which may be seen as self-concious and patronising attempts to champion it - or as it was proposed (for the sake of discussion) in the first post as white middle-class fraud.

I think the danger of this approach and reaction to it - can be seen as magazines and now many festivals, confine themselves to artists who fit in to some idea of what this 'World' or 'Roots' music is - and exclude from it much fine music making that may not fit this idea.