There is a tendency in music to react to earlier forms that become established. The reaction of be-bop to swing for example. Jazz was originally a reaction as well to the staid light classical music and sentimentality of it's age. Rock itself became a reaction to the slick crooners of the 40's. The folk revival was a reaction in a sense to the well-oiled popular music on the radio of the 40's and early 50's. I think it's unfortunate however to use the term anti-folk. I believe that perhaps a new name would be better to describe the music....something like earth music or well....punk, grunge..I guess that works to convey a reactive form.

The idea that the term "folk" should be associated with established acts working in coffee houses is unfortunate IMO because it cuts off a lot of the rich musical heritage of folk tradition.

In the field of jazz, Wynton Marsalis tries to show a relationship between the earlier forms of music which at one time were reactive and the later forms in which there is a progression from one form to another rather than a rupture. I think this is also true of hip-hop music in that the narrative rhythmic speech is present historically in African and African-American music.

Years ago, there were a lot of us who were experimenting with folk music and reinterpreting it for our own aesthetic ideas. We were lumped into being "commercial" which we were not since the experimental forms we were using didn't make anyone any money then. And still we got flack from the academic and the established "folk" community. But the irony is that we felt we were a part of the "folk process" in what we were doing.

If today young people want to experiment with a new form of music, and it has a reactive tinge, I don't think this should be dismissed. Listen to it, like it or not, but why not give it a chance?
I feel that way about any music that I am exposed to. I can admire certain forms without actually liking them...such as Arnold Schoenberg, for example.

The anti-folk handle isn't clear enough, though because of the various opinions as to what folk is.....(here we go again!)
IMHO, give it a definable name like be-bop or new age or something that's not exclusively anti but pro the form that's being innovated.

Frank Hamilton