Perhaps if the folk process is still happening (and I'm certainly willing to admit the possibility)certain recent or contemporary songs will eventually become folk songs. But it could be, of course, that if I could move forward in time a couple of hundred years I might find that the songs that have been (are going to be ... oh, bugger - this is confusing!) 'elevated' by the community to folk song status are not to my taste. This does not mean that my taste is any better than anyone elses, of course (perish the thought!!), but I might find, personally, that the folk song genre is no longer of any interest.

What if, in the future (in, say, 2207) such songs as 'The Birdy Song', 'Imagine' and 'American Pie' have replaced the Child Ballads. I think I'd rush back to 2007 and take up knitting ...