You make some interesting points, 'glueman'. Points which are not easily dismissed. Thank you for taking the time to do so.

Nevertheless, I'm not very convinced by your Frank Sidebottom example.

On the other side of the argument, though, I listened to a talk, last weekend, by the distinguished author, Ronald Blythe (who, as far as I know is not connected to the Folk Revival in any way - nor was the event a folk event). Mr Blythe made the point that few people sing any more - well, not on a daily basis, as they go about their work, as they did in the East Anglian countryside of his youth. He pointed out that most people are now passive consumers of music which is "piped into their heads" (presumably via their iPods).
Perhaps, on that basis, things like football chants are a rare exception to something which was once universal. I don't doubt that people have the potential to develop and transmit a musical tradition - perhaps they think that they don't need to any more - except, possibly, at football matches.