One of the chapters of the synthese „The folk song, music and dance in the Czech culture“, prepared by the employees of the Department of Ethnomusicology, of Ethnological Institute of Czech Academy of Sciences, will be dedicated to the Urban (folk) song in the historical ad social cultural context. The present study tries to formulate a summary of theoretical information as a methodological and terminological point of departure for a further research, a summary based on the sematic analysis of the individual components of the term „urban folk song“ and on the previous fundamental editions and monographies. The author proves that the inomissible part of the so called national treasure of songs has its roots exactly in the urban folk song, he reflects on the purpose of the contemporary investigation in this field and on the problem of the very existence of the urban folk song as a recent type. He points out the difficulties brought on by the attempts of the systematization in this sphere, he analyses various classification criteria and recommends their combination with the so called phenomenons (market song, party song etc.) In conclusion, he recapitulates briefly the hitherto produced bibliography in this field.