Congrats I guess, but Goat Rodeo ain't folk

[BradKlein]

I'm with Pete Summers, above. The only USEFUL definition of folk music that I've ever heard, is; music originally composed and played by non-professionals for their own and others' enjoyment. Once it's created by pros for performance to an audience that pays - it's not folk music.

But since the rest of the world doesn't all share my take on this, I just have to get by with folks calling James Taylor and Bill Monroe etc, folk music.

[tmsweeney]

I would agree with Mr Seeger ( who am I to disagree?)
but I would certainly include - "garage band" in there
the four piece ensemble of drums, electric bass guitar, and 2 electric guitars ( or variants there of) has certainly become a popular form for the "people" ( kids jamming in their parent's garage or basement)

notice "Bluegrass" is absent from the above but "country" is included
strange to include jazz which has its share of "academia" driving it
so I guess Taylor Swift is(or used to be) "folk "music?
She can jam in my garage any day of the week

[rb3868]

That was my bad -- Seeger certainly considered bluegrass as folk

Jazz was originally a sort of word-of-mouth amalgamation of the dozens of cultural traditions in NO - from french music, to german brass bands to gospel to african traditions. These days it does seem much like an academic exercise, and there is a world of snobishness in the jazz community (then again, that exists in every genre

[mrmando]

Classical composers have been borrowing from folk and popular music for generations. Some are better known for it than others (Bartok, Copland, Vaughan Williams, Ives), but just about any composer you can name has done some borrowing (if I am not mistaken, there's an early Mozart composition based on "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star"). So the idea of crossover goes back a lot further than Mike, Darol or even Edgar. Apparently the Academy decided to cut back the classical awards this year, in favor of creating the new award for Best Hip-Hop Performance by an Artist with Natural Hair Color. Or whatever.

The 42nd Grammy show ... the one where Rosie O'Donnell insulted Edgar, Sam, Mike and Josh ... was the last one I watched.

[tmsweeney]

I think Thile has natural hair color

Bush - questionable

Skaggs - most certainly not

[rgray]

I remember the fuss when Jethro Tull won a Grammy for heavy metal. No explaining these types of things.

[Perry Babasin]

When I was a kid (16-17 or so) my Dad was a member of NARAS, National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. He got me involved for a few years because he wanted help voting and picking albums that were outside of his very specific taste. He was a Jazz musician and a music snob, would not give anyone outside of hard core Be-bop or Modern Jazz genre any credence. The up-side was I got a great start on a fabulous record collection $2 apiece for promotional pressings. I guess there was no down side, the other up-side was I got to vote for the Grammys for a number of years throughout the '70s, he didn't even care except he would occasionally have an album or two he wanted to make sure I voted for, a friend or something.

My point is that the people voting on these awards are producers, industry professionals and professional musicians with DEFINITE vested financial interests and specific tastes. You know the Pop music industry (whatever flavor) dominates and directs the overall direction of where production, and more importantly, promotion dollars are spent. All these people live and die according to their industry connections, back scratching and who they know/who knows them. More of the Americana, Folk and Bluegrass people need to join the Academy. BTW my Dad would have considered Jethro Tull to be Heavy Metal.

I wanted to add that he hated Rock & Roll and considered Elvis to have been his career killer. Didn't like any kind of country either but respected Willie Nelson a lot, I think they actually hung out a little in the '60s if you know what I mean.

[KristinEliza]

Goat...Rodeo...sounds folk to me!! But recorded on the Sony Classical label...hmmm...

There are so many genres of music now...I don't see how there can be enough categories to cover them all...but...they keep adding new ones all the time (well, at least I see some new ones when I pay attention to the grammys...Best Regional Mexican Music Album????).

As with many of the previous posters...I don't give much credit to the grammys. I check out to see who won the classical, jazz, folk, and bluegrass categories...which are the ones that I think usually are awarding some actual musicians and musicianship!

[stevejay]

A misnomer, but good for the folk "label" as was already intimated.

[Paul Kotapish]

Anyone yearning for symantic consistency in the monikers applied to streams of popular culture is doomed to heartbreak.

Pick a typical expression of any musical genre from 50 years back--jazz, country, rock 'n' roll, swing, pop, folk--and compare it with an example associated with that genre today. Dollars-to-doughnuts that the two examples sound really different.

Musical styles are evolving faster than folks can forge new nomenclature for them, and so old labels linger, and folks who grew up with one style of music bearing a specific label are often alienated by quite-different styles bearing that same label.

And it's a two-way street. I have friends who like modern "country" music--which sounds like slick '70s pop with a hint of twang to my ears--but can't bear to listen to the Carter Family or Uncle Dave Macon or even the early Nashville and Bakersfield "country" sounds I love.

And what the heck does "World" or "Celtic" music sound like? Nobody that actually plays in a tradition that gets lumped into one of those catch-all tems describes their music that way.

And try to explain to a typical sound engineer that your "acoustic" instrument really is "unplugged" and that you'd like a mic, please.

Somehow we muddle through despite the babble (or is that Babel?).