"If you go to a 'classical' concert with no further information you will have no idea whether you're going to hear Mozart, Beethoven"
I think this is true to an extent, but all these types have ben long established and fall into their own identifiable genres of music under a general heading.
I'm quite fond of both trad and modern jazz, though I do prefer to know what I'm setting out to hear before I venture forth.
This is not what is being argued for here, and if I turned up to a folk club and was given what PFR has just put up I'd be ******* livid - there is no way that can possibly be described as folk in any shape or form and it would be a complete con to attempt to try (thank you for the perfect example, BTW).
From the word go there have been a wide variation of styles on folk scene ad you learned to suck it and see.
Virtually all forms could be traced back to traditional music in one form or another (even Zimmermann, when he was using folk forms to create), but now, it seems folk clubs are being used as platforms for any kind of music - the term has become totally meaningless within the folk scene.
The aggression with which PFK states his preferences is fairly typical of much of this and many other arguments - it is not just a takeover that has taken place, but an extremely hostile one - that has led to acculturation (one genre being displaced by another).
If folk song had not been so well documented and archived it would have been lost to us totally.
Jim Carroll