"what is the common feature which makes them 'folk'?'

Jim I have not the faintest, foggiest, fuzziest notion. I don't think these IS a common feature - just a vague consensus in the English speaking world that this sort of music is now called 'folk.'

And it's not MY list - it's the iTunes list - the world's leading download site, and therefore as good a snapshot of where we are on 02 06 08 as we'll get.

We can take it from this list that the fans of all those artists, in fact most people who have heard of them (apart from those of us who DO know what the word really means, of course!) would be comfortable using 'folk' to describe them.

As I've said many times (though you choose to ignore these parts of my posts), I don't know how it happened - I wasn't there, and I would NOT have condoned it if I'd seen it happening, because it's wrong, it's stupid, and it gives those of us who are trying to promote and develop both 54 folk AND WIki folk a massive headache.

But it HAS happened. A long time ago, now.

So now we have a choice:

Your way: Re-educate 64 million people who we can't reach and aren't interested anyway.

My way: Use the word 'trad' when referring to the 54 for now, and try to find something better asap.

Nothing to do with refining the 54.

I'm all washed out on this.

Anyone else got any ideas?