Folk also refers to rich businessmen, members of the House of Lords and frankly anybody.

Rock stars singing about the ills of stuffing powder up your nose has every resonance with somebody singing about it being cold hard work on a trawler boat.

I could be mischievous and say that if you are happy, you don't whinge. So, a lot of what are called folk songs are a way of expressing unhappiness with your lot. The music of envy?

it really makes me smile to read the above post claiming you have to fit some social stereotype (common ordinary working people) to have some relationship with "folk."

i used to work down the pit and enjoyed a lot of what I call folk music. I am now comfortably well off, apparantly in a socio economic group my parents would never have believed possible, and still enjoy the same music.

So, that buggers up that theory!