llok ffs everyone knows thaT SO CAKKED filk music is a bourgise invention

Which is, of course, spot on, as the redoubtable Jim Carroll confirms a few posts on:

the generic term under which are included traditional institutions, beliefs, art, custom, stories, songs, sayings, and the like current among backward peoples or retained by the less cultured classes of more advanced peoples.

BUT, whilst it's uncountably true that Languages like ours are constantly evolving and there's didly-squat we can do about it, so no point in complaining, just get on with it it's also true that Folk is essentially a Faith Music and that faith has remained unchanged since Folk was first perceived to exist by paternalistic Victorians enchanted by their romantic dreams of God-given apartheid and imperialism which applied as much to the class-system of Good Old Blighty as it did to the subjugation of Johnny Foreigner.

The term Folk Music hasn't evolved, but the nature of Folk Music has, as can be see in projects such as Cold Spring's ongoing Dark Britannica series, the 4th Volume of which gets 2013 off to a nice start. Features lots of great bands & singers including two trax from Mudcat's very own Dave Kidman no less! Check it out:

Various Artists : Hail Be You Sovereigns, Lief And Dear

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In Folk Circles there is still this tendency to favour the former in the Prescription vs. Description debate. This is definitely one case where it's easier to say what it is, than what it isn't.