What is pop but an alternative folk music? There is a lot of back-and-forth between the "roots" of present-day pop music and folk. C&W and blues arose from folk roots, and gave rise to rock-and-roll. Many of the broadway tunes of the tin-pan-alley days, and the minstrel tradition, which together (in part) gave rise to the pre-rock pop of the 40s and 50s, were written by underpaid and uncredited black artists with at least one foot very solidly in the "folk" tradition.

Then of course there was the direct injection of "folk" -- thanks in large part to Harry Smith and his devotees -- into the pop music of the 50s and 60s.

Modern euro-american "pop" very definitely has roots in folk. It may have grown far from its roots (goodness knows!) but it's just as true to call "pop" an "alternate folk" as the other way around.

So it seems to me.

Alex
O..O
=o=