The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #151212   Message #3528240
Posted By: Richard Bridge
20-Jun-13 - 07:02 AM
Thread Name: singer/songwriters from BAME backgrounds
Subject: RE: singer/songwriters from BAME backgrounds
No, "style" does not define "folk". Folk differs from other genres of music in this respect. If Folk was defined by style Steeleye Span would not have been folk, and Heartbreak Hotel would have become folk when Martin Carthy recorded it. Folk is vernacular music transmitted and modified by the oral tradition. These days "oral" needs to be read with laxity.

IMHO blues often fits into this analysis.