matt wrote: I don't think hip-hop, reggae and punk *want* to be considered folk - who does that help? Try flipping it round: is folk hip-hop? Is folk reggae?

No, because hip hop, raggae and punk are genres, while folk is a collection of genres, but is not a genre in itself. This also applies to classical. Waltz, march, aria, rondo and scherzo are genres, while classical is a collection of those genres, while it is not a genre in itself.

Reggae emerged from a grassroots music scene called ska. Very difficult to exclude any form of pop from the collections of classical or folk. What was the blues before it was allowed into the collection of folk?