We can get into/have gotten into some very interesting, albeit circular, arguments - in fact, we have been arguing this topic (i.e., "what is folk music") for the eight years or so I've been hanging out on Mudcat. Let's see - how about this, from my memory of a variety of different threads: one contributor says that only traditional music is folk; everything else is "popular". Another says that music for which there is a known author cannot be called traditional. Yet a third says that, with adequate research, a single author can be found for every "traditional" song...and lists a number of authors for various Child Ballads as proof. The logical conclusion? There is no such thing as folk music!