The proposition is fiendishly simple - does a definition matter to listening pleasure? Can fulfilled lives be had listening to folk music without any notion of the '54 definitions? Can you like traditional music that fits 1954, stuff that sounds like the songs Bert Lloyd made up and modern acoustic music and derive pleasure from all without troubling where the lines are?

Is folk music principally about communal enjoyment or an academic discipline?

Sorry, glueman. The only thing we might draw from this is that you've not been reading the same discussion as the rest of us. So many people have been at such pains to say over and over and over again that none of this has anything to do with what we listen to, what we play, what other people should do, or why.

Just to be clear, no, folk music is not primarily - not even mostly - about academic discipline. You foolishly present it as an either/or proposition. Like most fields of human endeavor, it's about a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Including, for some, intellectual curiosity and discussion. But saying, as you are doing, that anyone's interest in folk music is primarily for any reason other than the love of the music itself is silly. I could also call it stupid, if you are drawing this conclusion based on the contents of this thread, and/or insulting, again based on the contents of this thread. For someone who claims to dislike lines, you are certainly drawing some.