It is not just mudcat where the "What is... etc." rages on. The Banjo Hangout has many a thread attempting to answer that and other questions of equal unimportance. Brought to my easily confused memory was this verse from Roy Berkeley's parody "Party Folksinger" about the activities of the Peoples' Artists (singing those "good old People's songs)

"Their material is corny
But their motives are the purest
And their spirit can never be broke.
As they go right on with their great noble crusade
Of teaching folk music to the folk"

I have a button which says: Folk You! (nicely, though)

I used to hate folk music until I realized folk music is the music people enjoy in spite of commercialization, promotion and the agenda of impressing all and sundry with virtuosity for it's own sake.

Tom