The problem with using style as a means to identify folk song is that so many different styles have been applied. A traditional song is still a traditional song whether its performed unaccompanied in a pub, with an acoustic guitar or concertina in a folk club, by a classically trained singer in a concert hall or by an electric rock-style band. If Steeleye Span or Fairport perform a traditional song in a rock style, that can still be seen as "folk". But what makes a contemporary song performed in a rock style "folk" rather than "rock"?

I have one of recent BBC Folk Awards CD sets which includes a number of non-traditional tracks. In some cases neither the style of composition nor the style of performance resembles what I would recognise as typical of either traditional or contemporary folk music. I cannot identify any characteristic in these tracks which brings them within my understanding of "folk". However somebody obviously can, otherwise they wouldn't have been considered for the Folk Awards.