As Duke Ellington said "There are two kinds of fool. Those who say 'This is old and therefore good' and those who say 'This is new and therefore better'".
Unfortunately nearly all folk journaism(from outside) follows the second line, so we always seem to get the dreary contrasting of fat/old/beer belly/tankard/red-faced/Cecil Sharp/folk police with young/relevant/experimental/innovative.
    I saw a very interesting group in Manchester at the New Islington/Urban Folk Festival last year. They were dancing to hiphop in shellsuits and baseball caps as far as I recall, and were very funny.And they were neither bearded/beer-bellied or neo-pagan/black-clad. There is a third way!