Well we usually see people dressing up in 'ye olde costume' at re-enactment days at castles and what not. Its a re-enactment of the past.

And the same can be said for 'folk' or 'traditional' music - its a re-enactment of the past. If you believe that the 'tradition' is 'living' and 'alive' then your wrong. Its a re-enactment of old music. Its only that some people decided to dig/collect the stuff up and give it a revival that its around today - and I honestly believe this is the main reason it still exists today.

Another thread at the moment asks 'is tradition song still going' - and my answer to that is no. The fact that it was labeled 'traditional' has stagnated the music and preserved it in a way it can never again evolve - by definition tradition has to evolve. For example Folkies wouldn't and won't allow a tune to change at someones wim - so it cant really naturally evolve. The fact that the music has been to extensively collected and recorded means that this music cannot change and evolve through aural transmission and create vernacular culture and music. Ironically, the true vernacular music of today can be seen in rock/pop music, because it knows it can't stay the same - it thrives on change and in that sense it is technically traditional: the antithesis of the current so called 'folk' scene.

So, folk music is a re-enactment, and just like people wearing medieval clothes at a medieval fair, people play folk music at a folk festival (and if they get confused between re-enactments or choose to blend their nostalgic views of the past they may wear ye olde clothes at a folk festival)

I have no problem with folk music, re-enactments, people wearing ye olde clothes or whatever. In fact I participate in some of them; but I also realise that its not traditional, and that 'folk' isn't contemporary or 'living'. I can see that its only contextual in the sense of historical re-enactment, nostalgia, or stupidity in some cases.

War re-enactments aren't classed as traditional or living, because they are clearly definable by their historiography. The problem that the 'folk' world is suffering is that unlike the war, music is not so clearly mark-able in history - therefore there is room for the collective peoples nostalgia to play out, and what has developed is the belief that this past is still happening.

Sorry for the Rant.