Pardon the intrusion but I came accross this thread while doing a search on the subject of what constitutes 'folk'. So, for what it's worth, I figured I'd throw my 2cents in.
The reason it's so difficult to ascertain what constitutes 'folk' is because no one really knows how to define it. There's been a pretty heated debate going on for the past 50-60 years about how to define 'folk'.
The traditional argument: folk is so traditional that it doesn't even exist anymore. It only exist in small, isolated, lower-class, non-literate societies. Mass media and technology drowned it out long-ago. (see Robert Redfield's "The Folk Society.")
The more recent argument: Everything can be folk. Folk is literate, urban, rural, lower-class, upper-class, etc.... In other words any group in society that shares a common tradition, charachteristics, or set of beliefs, assumptions, likes, etc...is a folk group. This definition suggest that 'pop', in the distant future, might actually become folk, rather than the other way around. So maybe our grandkids will see Unplugged on Vh1, or hear Nirvana on the oldies station and actually consider them folk. They may consider the entire grunge movement folk. Why not?(see Alan Dundes "Interpreting Folklore")
Both of these definitions are sketchy. If folk only exist in the past then you can't classify anything (music or otherwise) that exists after around the 1930s folk. If everything is folk then there is no clear way to draw the line between what is folk-culture and what is pop-culture. Seems like people are still trying to find the middle ground. Most definitions are more like a set of guidelines, like this definition from
http://www.cimi.org/old_site/CHIO/deffolkart.html
--Both traditional and contemporary folk art must relate to some type of ethnic tradition: the work must have a connection to a larger cultural heritage and other objects produced by that culture.
--Folk art is never the art of the elite.
--Folk art elevates an everyday object from the ordinary to the special.
Anyway...sorry if I ranted, I'm trying to work out these things for myself because I have to write a paper on this stuff next week so this is helping me get out some ideas.
