ABSTRACT
The modern American folk-song revival began back in the thirties as a cultural movement, with overtones of social reform. In the last ten years our gigantic amusement industry, even though it is as yet only mildly interested in folk music, has turned this cultural movement into a small boom. As might have been expected, a throng of talented and ambitious city youngsters have taken over. These so-called city-billies or folkniks make most of the LPs and perform at most of the concerts. They have access to the impressarios and a-and-r men. They can quickly develop a local, then a national following among concert-goers and record buyers. And they translate folk music in ways that make it more understandable and acceptable to their market—an urban middle-class group, with a college background.
