I think John Hardly brings up an important point--most Americans never had heard folk songs, like "Goodnight, Irene" or "The Midnight Special", or "On Top of Old Smoky" til it became Pop music.

And no matter where the something starts out, once it is "Pop Music", it goes from being" The Next Big Thing" to "The Latest Thing" to "The Same Old Thing" and ends up as "Nothing".

The "Folk Music Scene" that has gone away is a lot like your high school class--it was your world for years but the day after graduation, it disappeared. You can't go back, you can't recreate it, and the new classes belong to others.