Scrump,

It's 'bollocks' for two reasons:

(i) Because it's just an untested theory that's been bandied about before. In my experience most people who were attracted to Folk Music through the music of 'Steeleye Span', for example, never seemed to get any further than 'Steeleye Span' (in fact I still meet people who still think that SS 'wrote' 'All Around My Hat', 'Cam Ye O'er From France' etc., etc.).

(ii) I'm damned if I'm going to like or praise something, that I don't like, because I hope it will appeal to some other section of the population (in this case 'young people'). If young people let folk music die because it isn't 'cool' enough for them then that's their responsibility and their loss - sod 'em!! Personally, I don't want to see the musical genre that I love bastardised and diluted by a bunch of trendy, five minute wonders and I have absolutely no qualms about saying so.