Quite obviously, in order to keep the discussion orderly, it will be necessary to answer in a way on which we can all agree:

"What is jazz?"

Obviously it would be counterproductive to defer the answering of this question while we still haven't agreed on (to the satisfaction of many?):

"What is Folk?"

We have made some progress with "What is Trad?," but "nobody sues you if you play it" seems somehow unsatisfying as a musicologically precise definition.

And for "What is bluegrass" the previously accepted "Whatever (but only what) Bill Monroe played" is now in dispute by a few, who maintain that it's really "anything you play so fast nobody notices the notes you leave out (like Bill did sometimes).

Please pardon the interjection, but I'm afraid I'm a little confused about how to respond in acceptable fashion to the questions posed ...

I think ...

maybe(?)

Of course maybe I'll figure it out if the thread proceeds far enough to give me some additional information that I can assimilate and digest.

Does anyone think it all has anything to do with "marketing?"

(OH SH*T - something else we don't have a really good definition for - dammit!)

John