For all those who subscribe to the folk-song-is-anything-you-wanna'-make-it crowd
or the "cherry pickers" who classify the music they like as folk, you are all throwing the baby out with the bath water.

The continuity and the tradition still prevails. BTW there's some pretty boring and bad folk music that falls into this classification. Just 'cause it's "folk" doesn't always make it good.

And music of the past was not always the best just because it was old.

Still, the early traditional singers of folk songs have been marginalized by the pop music industry and the so-called singer/songwriter. This is true for the traditional folk songs as well.

I don't think a date-oriented definition defines anything...1954...2009.

Traditional folk music is different than the manufactured songs by contemporary artists.
Some of either is good or bad depending on aesthetic values such as melodies, musicianship, lyric content etc. But a good traditional folk song has a durability that you won't find with many contemporary attempts at songwriting. It's a folk song because it
stands up over time.

Frank Hamilton