But that's tradition and ritual. Isn't that what we're supposed to like? :0)

A good show builds up to a climax. People want to leave on a high. That's why Morris teams usually finish on a big stick dance, rock concerts end with lots of power chords and drums. Motorhead always leave Ace of Spades until last; the Stones don't normally open with Satisfaction.

The time for the good quality/arty/sentimental stuff is part way through the concert.

But is your objection to the Rock and Roll, rather than the medley?

Rock and Roll is the real folk music of our era. The golden age of Rock and Roll was just long enough ago that there has been time for the the dross to be filtered out, and for a canon of greats to be agreed on. Almost everyone knows the words, at least to the choruses. Real "folk" (as opposed to "folkies") relate more to rock and roll than they do to historical gems about farmers' boys, tailors and mill girls. What most people refer to as "folk" music is in fact only a niche market.

Accept music on its merits. A personal experience: in the 70s, I was well into 50s rock and roll. There was quite a lot of low level rivalry at the time between devotees of rock and roll, punk, new wave, mod and heavy rock. (Notice that sea shanties and hunting songs don't appear in this list of music beloved of the working class masses.)

Recently, for mid life crisis reasons, I've been buying CDs of music from that period and to my surprise, I find that the similarities between the different genres are more noticeable than the differences. Just some of it's louder.

By being prejudiced against a category of music, all you are doing is limiting the amount of enjoyment that you can get from the experience of listening to music.