Interesting debate.

To 'Sell out' requires the artist to play something they do not wish to play by choice for the sake of selling records and folk musicians never will because for the most part they care about the songs and tunes they play.

If in the worst case senario they did 'sell out' it would not actually be a major catastrophy as the traditional music that has been passed on for centurys will still remain.

Country music may have 'sold out' but recordings and musicians are still around playing the trad stuff if you know where to look (maybe the oh brother where art thou sound track)

On the radio, TV is NOT the place to listen to folk music or country music, yes now and then there is the odd good folk programme. But the whole point of these types of musics is that they are played by a minority so why would you get them on TV which the majority of people watch. It is not a bad thing it just means that you have to look further, talk to people go to sessions, learn tunes from people not CD's and gain a bigger understanding of the trdaition at the same time, is that so bad????

Cheers, Sam