I must admit that prior to coming to the world of Mudcat, I thought "folk" was the broad winsome sort of acoustic stuff that has been mentioned (and assumed that the word had developed this meaning since its use in the 60's to mean "Dylan and Baez").

I stupidly used the term "traditional music" to describe the the music and song as performed by the Coppers or Scan Tester for example.

I also believe that you can, and in fact are almost duty bound to try, and add to this canon of music if you are a composing /creative musician working with this sort of material.