The agenda of collectors has changed over the years.

The early collectors saw themselves as recording and at times preserving the dying remnants of a culture. They believed that both high and popular culture ignored its aesthetic and historical value.

Certainly some of the collectors not so often mentioned, Gomme and Addy for example behaved much better than others.

Addy for example always asked permission to record his informants and sent them copies of papers, etc

What collectors such as Sharp stressed about their singers was that they were the last remaining representatives of an era and there was little about them that was interesting apart from their position as tradition bearers.

Nowadays we see the singer and the context of their performance as much more important than the early collectors ever did and so we try and record it more.

Adapted from Georgina Boyes in "Singer Song and Scholar". PM me for the full reference.