"Archiving and study (is that Leveller's navel-gazing? I'm not sure)"


What I'm saying is, quite simply, that knowing where you've been through the study and appreciation of traditional music, like the study of history, helps you to see where you are and where you're going. But (and here's the point) you have to want to go somewhere or it simply becomes a purely academic exercise (navel gazing).

Personally, I don't think folk music should be a purely academic exercise. It doesn't stop at some arbitrarily predetermined point in time - it's alive and developing and should reflect the society we live in today. That includes a re-evaluation of past events as seem from our own perspective. Whether or not you choose to call that development folk music is another debate. I do.