Melissa, if properly funded, well played traditional music is 'plasticised' what then are the qualities that 'authentic' music should have? Presumbly it has to be poorly funded and badly played...

I think part of this is about different conceptions of what we're talking about and what should therefore be done about it, coming from different priorities on different sides of the Atlantic. For me, I'd like to see better funding and official support for English traditional music... this is already haappening with some of the work that the EFDSS are doing with, for instance, heritage lottery grants. Its still a drop in the ocean though. I'd also like to hear a little more traditional music on national, state funded radio instead of the one hour and a few songs here and there we currently get: we need to make a bigger dent in the wall of American and home grown American influenced pop (presumably what Diane means when she refers to 'Uncle Sam pop'). I'm not anti such music, just fed up of its monopoly...

Teaching kids about traditional music in school seems an obvious and admirable place to start. They already learn about other sorts of music, but the authorities here do seem to have a blind spot when it comes to traditional music. It could even be done as part of a local history curriculum, if it is approached from the angle of regional as opposed to national traditions. We may even then get to the point where there's demand for more than just the one degree level course in traditional music in the entire country...

Which is a long drift from the original post which was about whether recordings were 'making water into ice'. Point is though, if you don't conserve the water, you're buggered when you need ice.

Cheers

Nigel