TockTockTock

Think of it like a book club, but instead of reading a book... we are all listening to an album. So, for a week, we listen to the album that got nominated, and on the following week, the person running the album club will start a thread so we all can discuss and give our opinions on it.

Basically, the point of an album club is to discover more music and/or be able to intelligently discuss/analyze/listen to it.

Also, what do you mean what makes something folk? It's a bit of a broad term to be honest... Folk has many sub-genres and can be found in different forms across the globe. It can be anywhere from the Hungarian composer, Béla Bartók, to the Scottish guitarist/songwriter, Bert Jansch. (I suppose it's a bit difficult to define). Also, a few sub-genres of folk include: folk rock, psych folk, freak folk, avant-folk, neofolk, progressive folk, folktronica, apocalyptic folk, etc. I'm not entirely sure, however, if you could consider folk-metal and folk-punk to be folk sub-genres or just sub-genres of metal and punk...

If this didn't help, then there is a Wikipedia article on it (which can be found here) and a debate about it on this site here.