Cranky Yankee, you answered the question in your first post. Did you actually want to to know or did you already know the answer and wanted someone to disagree with you? Either way, I like the topic because I believe that any light shed on the subject is informative.

I go with Art Theime's statement. The word "tradition" is significant because it has to do with honoring a legacy. I don't think a MacDonalds is a tradition or even traditional architecture for that matter.

I don't think "a million songs sold" is an evidence for a folksing either.

There has to be a cultural connection that has continuity over a period of time. It can be doggerel, too. It might even be a dirty song, one that's been transmitted from schoolyard to schoolyard over the years. There is such a thing as a "bad" folksong but then that gets subjective.

Why I think this discussion (even if it's unresolved) is important is that it illuminates a certain kind of expression that some of us have grown to love.
I differentiate this expression from that of a popular commercialized expression for the media. It's intention is different. It's not created to make money although in some cases it might, inadvertently. Initially, it might have started as a composed song for the stage or as in the case of Schubert Lieder, an art song but through the ages became changed very much like a rock gains a luster from a stream bed with water rushing over it.

Frank Hamilton

Sam Hinton described a printed version of a folk song as a photograph of a bird in flight.

Frank Hamilton