: the musical culture that we all share as "folk" of a common group includes, yes, the best-known
: traditional songs of older English and Celtic English-speaking cultures ~ but it also includes
: the best-known and deservedly enduring songs of the British music-hall and the American
: musical-comedy stage and movie screen, jazz "standards," blues, rock "oldies,"
: country-and-western classics, Stax and Motown, "British Invasion" pop, "singer-songwriter"
: pseudo-folk, etc., etc., etc.

Who is this "we"? I'd never heard of "Stax" until you mentioned it there, I've heard less Motown than Balinese gamelan and a *lot* less C&W than 20th century chamber music. I don't see any point in that random assemblage of genres - are you saying that if you like one you'll like them all? Certainly not true for me - more than half of that list are things I've never paid money to hear and some are things I actively switch off or leave the room to avoid.

Other people have made this point before, but if you aren't a member of the north-east North American middle class your exposure to singer-songwriter music is going to be pretty limited.

You have also left out techno and its descendant genres, which are FAR more prevalent in the public sphere where I am than any of the forms you mention. Just listen to what leaks out of iPods on the bus.