However any if us define folk does not of course affect the quality of the music of the world in any significant way. It is rather similar to the obvious fact(that not everybody has grasped) that whether or not I believe in the existence of God does not actually affect whether God exists or not.
   There is, however, one glaring exception to the above(as it applies to folk music). If an arts administrator controls the allocation of funding to folk music, or if a company controls what music is played on a folk radio programme, then the belief of the people concerned can directly affect the popularity of the music. And in those cases, these definitions are of great significance, as it means one person can improve or destroy someone else's livelihood.
   It is for this reason that the "meaning of folk" is not just an academic discussion.This finacial consideration gives many people a vested interest in enlarging, or changing, the category of "folk" so that includes themselves, but not others. As anyone can observe, this is currently diverting financial resources from old-definition trad folk to new definition singer-songwriters with guitars. Whether this is a good, a bad or a neutral thing is a matter of taste. It may be that the only sensible action would be the abolition of the earmarking of grants, airtime etc to certain categories of music.
    In the longterm these matters will be of little importance. There is a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will: and in this case, the name of the divinity is "the folk".