I think Sinead's comment about "dismissing" folk music, as well as the comments about needing a "bridge" into folk music, are very telling, because they do imply that people judge by what they're fed, rather more than by what they'd like if they did their own musical exploring. I didn't need "bridges" to get into the many, radically different styles of music I appreciate, I simply went looking for it with an open mind. The fact that she had to become accustomed to appreciate a lone voice singing is particularly shocking: has simple singing become so foreign to our way of life??

Folk/traditional music doesn't need to appeal to "wider audiences"; like classical music, it has become a niche taste which will survive on its own merits. You don't need to build bridges to it, because it's perfectly fine as it is, and it's immediately accessible to anyone who goes browsing around for it. The "bridges" tend to supplant rather than popularize the original music. Most people just stick with the "accessible" pap they're fed; they don't go on from Kate Rusby to discover Annie Briggs or Maddy Prior (who are still one step removed from trad singers, recordings of which are scarce due to the overwhelming dominance of the revivalists and contempos.)

To say that the affected "breathy girly vocals" are laudable and necessary as a bridge--well, I'm just not buying it. And I certainly don't want to see that affectation become dominant in the folk world, particularly since it's directly in opposition to virtually all traditional styles. Should "Rigoletto" be performed by boy bands to "make it accessible"? Or can you see how the essence of the opera would be bolloxed by such an attempt? You can only twist the original music so far, divorcing it from its original context, before you have robbed it of its essential nature and created an anachronistic mockery: your grandfather dressed in parachute pants and a "Nine Inch Nails" T-shirt sporting a mohawk. Not convincing on any level, and rightfully regarded as inferior to self-consistent contemporary works.