The return of the good folk.

Currently enjoying a wealth of critical and commercial success, the folk scene is at its strongest since the late-Sixties. And with the genre's traditional strands rubbing shoulders with both pop-inflected and experimental, forward-looking music, its prospects for the future look positively rosy. Music Week reports on a genre enjoying life back in the spotlight

Folk, it seems, is no longer a dirty word. In fact, it has almost unwittingly become cool and increasingly influential in mainstream music. But when asked the simple question "what is folk?", there are likely to be as many answers as there are eager respondents.

Traditional folk music may be easily recognisable as music of the people; songs passed down through the generations, but as each successive wave of musicians forges its own template, the definition of folk is being stretched ever wider.

In the late Fifties and Sixties, revivalists like Ewan MacColl renewed interest in traditional material. Then in the late Sixties and early Seventies Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span and Pentangle found massive acclaim and mainstream success with the electrification of the genre and its songs. But in the two decades that followed and with punk, indie and electronic music dominating the zeitgeist, folk was being spoken of in almost embarrassed tones.

Fast forward to the Noughties, however, and a new generation has seen folk emerge from the underground as acoustic acts proudly tag the term `folk' to their music. Like-minded young people collaborated - Fife's Fence Collective, for example, proved a fertile ground with artists including James Yorkston, Lone Pigeon and King Creosote. Sub-genres including folktronica, psychedelic folk and US lo-fi acoustic `folk' all found eager cult audiences.

Traditional folk was on the move, too. Eliza Carthy and Kate Rusby had begun reinventing the tradition through the late Nineties, while in 2003, Jim Moray shook things up with his electronic, poppy reworkings of traditional favourites, in doing so gaining massive exposure in the mainstream press.

Moray says, "There were a number of us all having the same idea at the same time - artists having aspirations and shooting for the moon. We saw Kate Rusby, Eliza Carthy and Norma Waterson get nominated for the Mercury Music Prize and we knew our music didn't have to be parochial.