I don't think anyone's disputing the reality of current usage. If you put together the plain-speaking songwriting of Woody Guthrie, the participatory appeal of the skiffle boom, the WMCs' appetite for entertainers/raconteurs, the left populism of the Revival and the late-60s overlap with prog rock, you can even start to explain why and how 'folk' came to cover such a broad range of meanings - or rather, this particular broad range of meanings.

But, as the man said, es kömmt drauf an, sie zu verändern.