Somehow I missed the start of this thread...I could have saved you all this debate.

Of course pop song can become trad... it takes 84 years, 3 months and 9 days to qualify. Then someone submits it to the "Committee of Modal Folkers", who analyze it for 3 months and vote in an alley behind a random pub in England. Then they go inside, sing 3 versions, and announce it as 'trad'... then the audience throws rotten vegetables and/or nods seriously.

Over the next year, the committee's opinion (liberally paraphrased) is passed on to OTHER pubs & clubs, argued over, transmitted to America, where they have totally forgotten the original, and finally someone starts thread #2933744999336 at Mudcat, where it is linked to 984 other threads and bandied about in very clever rhetoric until it no one remembers what the question was.

Then, if some young girl finds the words in he grandfathers notebook and make a recording of it to one of the 9 Irish tunes, it magically becomes TRAD.

The process starts now.