I think that there are working class people who appreciate folk music and identify with it.
When it was appropriated by the Left Wing in the forties under Browder, it was more of
a self-conscious effort by people who really appreciated folk music to make it music of the people. In those days, Benny Goodman was more music of the people in the cities. Bob Wills in Texas.

Just because folk music isn't hugely popular doesn't mean that it isn't working-class or music of "the people". What people? So much is controlled by the media these days that what is popular is being manipulated by music merchants and those in the cultural seats of power.

The idea that popular music is the music of the people is analogous to the idea of the "tyranny of democracy" that was so trumped up by right-wing ideologues. Popular music is a business. Folk music in its intent is not.

It exists as a music of the people, maybe not the people the author of this thread has in mind.

Frank