If these numbers are indicative of the larger scene, the number of people with an official connection to folk music must number more than 10,000. This number does not even include the people who simply listen to the music. The folk music of the 1990s is both continuation and product of the traditions which existed throughout the 1900s. It is often characterized by the strong singer-songwriter movement that developed in the 1970s and 1980s. Although many folk purists and academics debate folk music's proper definition, we take a direct and pragmatic view. . .
Folk music is what folk music does.
The New Folk Music is tradition-rooted music as it is performed in the 1990's. Bluegrass is a highly specialized and discernible offspring of folk and country music, sometimes considered a subgenre of folk music. Fenster described the institutional and economic context as a network of generally small, independent businesses which either have a low profit margin or are nonprofit organizations. The institutional structure of the bluegrass community is comparable to the contemporary American folk music community, although bluegrass appears to be a smaller community with a more rigid definition of what music fits into it. Financial rewards Traditionally, financial rewards rarely have been large in the folk music community.