I get the feeling that this thread isn't about the 1954 definition, but rather about people who don't like being told that traditional folk music is different than contemporary folk music. This distinction has nothing to do with the quality or value of any piece of music or any performance. It has nothing to do with what sort of music any musician should play -- except when a singer-songwriter wants to play in a club that focuses on traditional music. And that's still not about the 1954 definition, which most people who play and enjoy traditional music have never heard of and don't pay any attention to if they have. Except for scholarly pursuits, the 1954 definition has no relevancy in the real world. But traditional music, for all it is academically undefined for most of us, is still different than contemporary folk music, in much the same way that we don't need a definition of jazz to know that it's different than baroque music.

There seems to be a subtext that people who play traditional music ought to know and defend the 1954 definition. How silly.