I am thinking that it is possible to like folk music while not especially liking ballads. But so much emphasis has been put on 'ballads' i.e. narrative songs with other stuff (eg 'lyrics' ie poems expressive of feelings/states of mind) being downplayed.

The quality of the music has to be key: downplaying music as merely a vehicle for the story won't do for me. For it would appear that if we go back far enough stories were told in poetry without music at all. Anglo Saxon alliterative verse, for example.

Why bother with a vehicle for something that can carry itself?