Torctgyd wrote that when he was growing up he was told "by many English people that the English had no folk music of their own; it was all Irish or Scottish in origin."

When I was growing up I was told that Black people in the United States and where ever, never had ANY culture apart from "Negro" spirituals.

Currently music books still feed into that erroneous conclusion by continuing to abitrarily categorize many non-religous songs of African American composition as 'folk', 'traditional', or United States {American} folk music, while appropriately crediting a few to us {African Americans}.

As others on this thread have written, knowing the origin of songs helps the listeners to understand the context and meaning of the song.

I would also add that knowing the origin of a song may help enhance the self-concept and group concept of members of the group who composed the song...And it may also correct ethnocentric misinformation that all too often was the standard practice in the past.