OK, all you "THEY'RE-so-horrible-to-us-THEY-won't-let-us-call-it-folk"
whingers. Go ahead and have a go at creating "the folk songs of tomorrow" - I challenge you! And if you're successful, I'll be the first to applaud you (although, of course, I may not be around to see the fruits of your efforts).

Arguably, the most successful attempt at doing something like this was by Ewan MacColl (Boo! Hiss! - right, that's got that over with!). But MacColl was steeped in the Tradition, used traditional tunes, or tunes based on traditional tunes, and even based his texts on the speech patterns of the people he celebrated. Now, it may not even be strictly necessary to go to those lengths (?) in order to complete the project that I've set you, but at least it shows that MacColl had a deep knowledge and understanding of what folk songs were all about, before he set out on a such a massive undertaking.