Seems like music sponsored by Hitler, Stalin, and Mao was *real* popular for a while, in huge communities. Not that Marketing or Authority could have had anything to do with it...!

Nerd is correct. Aesthetics results from both personal and community forces, not all of them by any means restricted to artistry.

Just to stay on topic: I bought my first Collins LP because I was interested in English folksong both personally and academically, uninfluenced by the social dynamics of the English folk scene. I thought the match-up of her self-effacing style and her trad material was nearly perfect. It did seem to come from another time.

Her later performances of jazzier material are less appealing because what seems appropriately self-effacing in one musical context can seem bland and listless in another.

Collins's "trad" singing has a warm, straightforward, and naive quality that I personally enjoy.