Hi Lucy,

I don't know to what extent you habituate this board, but if you've not been here much you may be puzzled by some of the responses you'll get.

You need to know that there are at least two incompatible and passionately defended schools of thought here (as well as many shades of opinion in between).

One group holds that the use of the term 'folk' can only refer to specifically non-commercial, non-business and therefore, by definition, non-industrial activities, specially in the case of music (see threads with '54' in the title). These will probably suggest that the answer to your question must be therefore 'no.'

The other group larely accept the more widely-held (among people under 60 anyway) definition which you'll find in Wikipedia under 'folk music.'

Here the answer is emphatically 'yes.' If we allow that 'industry' means 'the manufacturing of a good or service within a category' then all 'folk' artists (i.e. those who call themselves, or who are called by others, 'folk'), as well as all clubs, venues, record companies, websites, magazines, publicists, agencies and so one who accept the term 'folk' as being at least pert of their 'business' description (see below) make up a 'folk music industry.'

You will have to decide which group to agree with. But if your essay is to be accurate you'll probably have to make a stab at referring to the dichotomy at least!

Tom

PS: "A business (also called a firm or an enterprise) is a legally recognised organization designed to provide goods and/or services to consumers.

Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, most being privately owned and formed to earn profit that will increase the wealth of its owners and grow the business itself.

The owners and operators of a business have as one of their main objectives the receipt or generation of a financial return in exchange for work and acceptance of risk.

Notable exceptions include cooperative businesses* and state-owned enterprises. Socialist systems involve either government agencies, public, or worker ownership of most sizable businesses"

*So even folk clubs are businesses (the size of the transaction is not relevant).

PPS And of course 'the receipt or generation of a financial return in exchange for work and acceptance of risk' does not preclue the exchange of other values, and these may indeed be of greater import.