OK, let's try it this way. Folksonngs are called folksongs because they are representative of a folk, that is to say a group or culture. They differ from personal expression in this regard. Often, they lack the sophistication that more formal songs posess. This simplicity is an advantage in popular usage. When someone tells me that they dont know any folksongs, I tell them that they know hundreds. We all know hundreds of folksongs. They are our heritage. Nursery rhymes are folksongs. So are hymns, patriotic songs, school songs, Girl Scout songs, play songs, family favorites, parodies, most "dirty" songs, campfire songs, etc., etc., etc. The real clue is who sings the song. If a performer sings it to an audience, it aint. If the audience sings it to themselves, it is. So whem Bing Crosby sang White Christmas it was a lovely Irving Berlin number. When we sing White Christmas around a piano, it is a folksong that was written by Mr. Berlin. (Actually, Berlin wrote another song that became folk. God Bless America, indeed). You see, we dont determine what is and what is not folk. That privilage is left to the folk. They may decide to adopt a song as their own, like Robert Burns's Auld Lang Syne or Steven Foster's Oh Susanna. They are the judges, and, by they, I mean we. Popular music tastes change and popular music must change in response. This, in no way, affects the ritual needs of a people, which are served by the songs and legends of tradition. Of course, new groups will require their own anthems, but, contrary to current thinking, newer isn't always better. Folk music will live on, in spite of its lack of commercial popularity. It will survive within its own cultures if the cultures, themselves, survive. As for those communities that no longer exist, their songs will live through historians, ethnomusicologists, cultural anthropologists and plain old folksingers like me. Mike Miller