"To be lumped together as "snigger/snogwriters", or the AGB (Anything Goes Brigade), is insulting in the extreme, and it is hard to see, failing acceptance by traditionalists of having a place in the folk genre, where we actually belong."

I don't see the need for terms like snigger/snogwriter either, though I don't have a personal problem with 'anything goes' in and of itself (I might not seek it out from HMV but during an amateur music session it's all good to me).

The 'revival' as a particular cultural phenomenon distinct from the old oral tradition, inspired a bunch of people to compose songs echoing elements of the old. The 'folk genre' as most people (bar strict traditionalists such as RB & JC there) think of it now, was born during the revival and has sprung off into all kinds of directions since. The term became reassigned by dint of popular musical trends and general language usuage to include modern musics - including music that barely makes a nod at the old songs, if indeed any at all.

But that's the way music and language evolves, and indeed mostly for the better. Without new arts and new ideas frogleaping off the back of prior ones - we'd all be stuck in some pretty ugly twisted shapes creatively and intellectually.

Having said that a Jacobean Tragedy is a Jacobean Tragedy, and however many contemporary writers are inspired by the Revenger's Tragedy and however many modern gory screenplays are composed, no more Jacobean Tragedies will ever be writ. That's my take anyway..