I wasn't going to bother Soldier but since you have brought it up:

"comforted that their mediocre tradition is safe in the hands of the even more mediocre ......... "

This simply misses the essence of music - it either does something for you or it doesn't. That's it really. Calling it mediocre is irrelevant.

"our entire nation should be celebrating" This is never going to happen. I don't think this entire nation has ever celebrated anything has? The end of WW2?

My experience, only nearly 50 years, is that if you present old songs and tunes well in the right environment lots of people enjoy it. That's it really

L in C#