The "1954" definition is not arbitrary - it encapsulates what a lot of people are interested in (for listening to, performing or reading about), and THAT, ultimately, is what you want from such a definition.

I'll give pretty much anybody a listen if they're doing Scottish or related traditional material, and have a look at pretty much any traditional song I find transcribed in a book. Stuff in the Dylanoid idiom is irrelevant to me, leaves me totally cold, and my only interest in it is how to avoid having it inflicted on me. So I support any effort to give *that* an acccurate label too.

But in practice "folk" is now a useless term - you have to look at the details, like the tradition a peeformer saya they come from. Whatever they describe themselves as, if they say their major influence is Jeannie Robertson I know I'll probably like them and if it's Richard Thompson I'll be bored out of my skull.

"Traditional" still has some life left in it.