Shimmy - no one is drawing lines or abandoning any label!!! That is the frustrating part of this discussion - everyone is talking over the heads of each other.

The problem has been, the original label - the word "folk" was NEVER well defined, no matter what a group said in 1954 to the contrary. The word "folk" has been altered, tragically or refreshingly depending on your point of view, and nothing can be done to stop it. All the pissing and moaning, stomping your feet and holding your breath to you turn blue will not prevent the Guardian from calling Ani DiFranco a folksinger.

Aside from the altercockers who cling to semantic anchors, the world moves on. This does NOT mean that ANYTHING has been abandoned or thrown in the trash heep. Time marches on and change will happen.

During the folk revival, many folklorists and musicologists chose to ignore the revival - with legitamate gripes at the time. I feel what they failed to take into consideration is that this music is a living tradition. The reason collectors still had source singers was because the music was part of their lives. Guess what, Ani DiFranco may be part of the lives of a new generation and her songs MIGHT be serving the same purpose.

You can't freeze time. You can learn from the past, and a big reason for learning from it is so that we can take the lesson and apply it to our modern lives.   People don't live in museums.

The study of folk music will always be about homemade music that comes a community.   I think this helps separate "folk" from "popular".   The river is always going to be muddy, but you swim where you choose.