"...and maybe they just got hired because they know something about music." Uh...ok, I see where you're coming from now. I shall try to listen to bookstore music section employees more, and people who study music less.

Martin, why does it bother you so much that not everything is folk music? How can it be a matter of snobbery? It's not that music in other genres isn't good - it just isn't folk. If someone said 'Purple Haze' wasn't classical music, would it be snobbery? I'm wondering why you're equating 'folk' with 'better' because it sure as hell ain't anybody else here.