Hi, John:

If you ask a thousand music lovers the question "what is folk music" you'd get a
thousand different answers ... all of them right because folk music trhoughout
the ages is the music sung by folks. In other words, only Billboard and egghead
musicologists have such definitons. There wasn't just one Folk Revival (such as
that which occurred in the late 50's and early 60's) but there have been dozens,
perhaps more than a hundred for as long as mucic has existed and has been
telling stories, etc.

The Folkies consider themselves to be "purists" and claim ownership of all folk
music. But there is no agreement among them, and most of the are just a little
bit opinionated, and hypercritical. A lot of Folkies like music that would
never be commercially successful, and if you like the sound of "jugs, washtubs
and harmonicas" you'll fit right in with the most vocal of this group.

They hate the "sell-outs" who popularized folk music during the last revival
because they were commercially successful "first as crossover artists" and later
as mainstream artists. i.e. Joan Baez, PP&M, The Kingston Trio, and teh like.
Most of the artists that were able to "chart" have survived more than 50 years
and will still be performing until they die, or no longer have the health to
perform.

Is their success a triumph for folk music or a defeat? Ask most folkies who
will tell you the Folk Revival ended when Bob Dylan came to the stage and played
an electric guitar at the Newport Jazz Festival, but that's not true. What
ended the Revival was the British Invasion led by the Beatles and others. Then,
came disco and polyester suits. With music like almost everything in society,
"when the herd moves on" it's unstoppable. And, with folk music since the
mid-60's the herd has moved on.

On Live365.com which has more than 6,000 independent radio stations there are
only 174 Folk stations, excpt for the top 10 stations most of the others have
fewer than 2 or 3 isteners, and even the station owners seldom listen to their
own stations. Only two PBS radio statons that are simulcasting have any real
success, but the Live365.com listener caps prevent most listeners from
listening, and these two stations have subscription-based links and over-the-air
radio statons where most people either pay to listen online, or have to live
near enough to the station to liste.

To answer your question about whether "folk music" made it into the mainstraam,
it depends upon how you define folk music. Arlo Guthrie, whos Dad was Woody,
knows more about 20th Century folk music than most would tell you that
popularity and financial success doesn't mean that an artist has become a
sell-out ... it just means that the artist has found a way to survive in the
very competitive marketplace of music. If you live in the mountains and are
isolated from the rest of society, you might actually want to listen to
hillbilly artists playing crude instruments who have never had any music
training.

But, if folk music serves any purpose, it needs to be listend to. When the top
folk artists were protesting the Viet Nam War, struggling for Civil Rights to
end racial injustice and speaking out for the poor and unedcated in America ...
those issues needed a mass audience to hear the message. Whether the artists
were backed up by orchestras or using acoustical instruments ... the message in
those songs burned across the nation and all over the world. Once the money
moved away from folk music to other genres, the message had a difficult time
finding an audience. But, by that point, public opinion about the issues had
changed the culture and seared the nation's conscience. It took a Revolution to
stop a lot of the injustice that existed for far too long. It's been 50 years,
and it's high-time for another revolution, we need it.

Loran