As a young 59 year old, my interest in folk (apart from the Spinners Christmas shows in my childhood) came from folk rock. At that time my music tastes were evolving from heavy rock to more eclectic interests.

My interest in folk came from a 1979 Radio London broadcast of progressive music during the 70s, of which one track, that caught my attention, was Rising for the Moon. By the time I left college in 1980 my entire folk music collection was History of Fairport Convention (whose penultimate gig I saw when they supported Led Zeppelin at Knebworth) and Year of the Cat.

At that time, in order to broaden my social life, I started going to folk clubs, where I was exposed to the whole spectrum of folk music which I would have never come into contact with via TV and radio - not knowing then that, or would have particularly interested in, radio programmes existed.

So, skipping the next 39 years to conclude. Folk Rock has just as much a role to play as Trad Folk - personally I still like both as well as Contemporary Folk. Also if the next 19 year-old's first contact with folk comes from Folk Rock then nothing wrong with that either.