traditional music always changes as generations change, but when it was part OF a tradition it didn't change nearly so fast or suddenly.

It is one thing to evolve, it is quite another to be grabbed and twisted and gratuitously altered because someone wants to be sure THIER version is different.

If a youngish 'folk singer' is casting about for some batch of songs to put on a CD, or sing in clubs, they don't often 'feel' the history and perspective that the song brings with it....they just want repertoire. It is simply a matter of which is to featured...the song, or the singer.

I do realize that you can't regulate taste, but I can certainly recognize the effects of a "tradition" being 'modernized' beyond recognition! (I can even admit that occasionally someone improves something old and awkward...I just don't feel that is the usual result).

I don't pretend that even I, the old purist curmudgeon, preserves the exact flavor of the older songs I do, but I try to be aware of the general flavor and sense of the song and make my own treatment of it as unobtrusive as possible....that being said, I know that my attitude IS rather in the minority these days of rampant commercialism.

...but I still will not sing a pumping chanty at triple speed, just to get 'em clapping at the bar!..*grin*