No one would want to be branded a ‘folkie’. The word conjures up an image of a cider-swigging, morris-dancing yokel with a penchant for ‘hey nonny-nonnys’ and, sadly, less of a penchant for washing. Folk is uncool. The young don’t get excited by the idea of tradition any more than the old get excited by the avant-garde. So how do we explain the recent surge in popularity of folk-tinged popular music that has variously been termed ‘nu-folk,’ or ‘psych-folk’?

Folk music is rather romantically described by many as ‘the music of the people’. It has always naturally been a community music: many refuse to acknowledge that traditional songs have had a composer at all, but have sprung up as a result of a feeling of a particular group of people at a particular time in history. As a result, it has always had a role as protest music, and let’s face it – protest is a bit cool. One only has to look at Bob Dylan’s massive 60s following to see that.

People want to feel like they are the renegades on the edge of society fighting for a worthy cause, and folk music allows them to feel like they could be that person - even if they are just some middle class kid listening to it in their room at home. Folk somehow inspires that feeling of power and possibility because of the contexts in which we are used to hearing it; for example, Joan Baez’s rendition of ‘We Will Overcome’ can’t help but conjure up images of the Civil Rights Movement in America.

In this age of Simon Cowell, something music fans do want to protest about is the homogenisation and general dumbing-down that is mass media entertainment. Folk offers the perfect antidote for this. Whereas One Direction are shiny and new, folk is nicely worn and tattered; vintage, if you will. Folk has a personality; it’s otherworldly and yet at the same time honest and earthy. Songwriters today are looking to use this inherent honesty and authenticity that folk music has to give their own music those same qualities.

This borrowing of material and ideas also works the other way around. Bellowhead are using traditional tunes but reworked in a much bigger way – a line up of brass, strings, pots, pans, cutlery and many other things lets them create a massive sound more suited to the stage than the folk club. Uiscedwr mix jazz elements into their music and Afro Celt Sound System combine Celtic tunes with techno and West African rhythms to create something entirely new, but with folk as its basis. At their recent London gig, Lau combined their furiously infectious jigs and reels with electronic effects, light shows and an impressive amplification system, making the whole experience incredibly hypnotic and effective.

Proof of this borrowing between genres can be found in the fact that in 2010 Laura Marling’s ‘Rambling Man’ was nominated for both a Radio 2 Folk award, alongside folk greats Andy Cutting and Eliza Carthy, while her album was nominated for a Mercury Music Prize alongside indie greats The xx and Wild Beasts.

Its clear from the prevalence of bands such as Fleet Foxes and Johnny Flynn that popular genres are learning from folk to great commercial success, but there is a danger of alienating audiences.

Take Mumford and Sons: they have exploited their success too such a degree that people now consider them inauthentic and bland, a pop band falsely donning folk apparel. Likewise, if a band like Laue pushed too far in the abstract electronic direction, they’d risk losing many of their fans.

It’s principally a question of choosing between success and sticking to your roots, although it’s arguable that bands like Mumford and Sons and Noah and the Whale have no genuine ‘roots.’ In their hands, folk becomes an empty, tacked on sign of authenticity and originality, as though the addition of a banjo renders a pop song revolutionary. While it can be disheartening to see such bastardisations of the folk tradition, it is worth remembering that there are many musicians using these influences in new and exciting ways that help combat this over-saturation. Pop may have had its way with folk, but the tradition continues to thrive in other areas.