I didn't invent the definition. I have lost the piece of paper which bore the definition. I know the definition may be difficult to apply. The definition does not make one sort of music superior to another. The definition may perhaps not be truly relevant to the topic of this thread. However, to the best of my recollection the definiton is this. Folk music is music handed down and modified by the oral tradition. Thus very elderly songs modified by the oral tradition but which were first published in writing are not folk. This means the Cuddy Wren and Greensleeves are neither folk. It also means any song published by a living writer whose identity is knwo is not folk. I still like some of them (and many assume they are folk - perhaps Fiddlers' Green, or the Mingulay boat song - but they aint.