Traditional songs were songs of their time

Contemporary songs are songs of the current time

Those that survive the passage of time will become traditional folk songs

Social history yes but songs with tunes which have the unknown quality to make them memorable ~ that say something about us as human beings within the context of being who we are!

Place for performance is limited, so to some extent are songs deemed to be traditional folk songs ~ and some are of course discarded or unpopular so fall out of use ~ rightly or wrongly maybe

Ray