Okay Sb a little clarification needed here. Whilst I also agree with Ss
these were academics from all around the world, The International Folk Music Council, so what they were discussing was scholarly approach to the subject and not what people should or shouldn't perform in folk clubs. Also it was 1954, before the folk song revival had properly taken off in the UK. They certainly weren't all 'serious men with beards'. The main driving force was Maud Karpeles, a stalwart of the EFDSS and collaborator with Sharp. They were not all in agreement on the final wording of the 54 descriptors as they didn't apply accurately to every country's folksong corpus. But in true democratic style they managed to reach a concensus (unlike today's politicians in many parts of the world). You can disagree with what they came up with (I prefer not to use it as a definition, just guidelines) but to call it 'ridiculous' is quite frankly ridiculous! And as I said, it wasn't just 'one small European country'.... Get yer facts right!