It also seems to be true that the audience for "contemporary folk" tends to be more affluent and better educated than audiences for other non-Classical genres, and tend strongly to be white, female, and politically left of center.

I think that by calling one's music "folk," a performer suggests that in some way he or (more often) she represents the "voice of the people" speaking out to the cultural and political Establishment.

The limited popularity of "folk" in any sense, however, calls that assumption into serious question.

Once again I'm only describing what I see.