Seems to me there's a great deal of wishful thinking going on here.
Tradition is not just repetition - it's a bit more complex than that; nor does it have anything to do with what the songs 'sounds' like.
Sullivan's John has a claim to 'tradition' because it was born into a community that could identify with it, make it their own and claim it represents their way of life in some way.
Rogers and Hammerstein's You'll Never Walk Alone, made for an Broadway musical, has about as much to do with the lives of the people of my home town as does Mongolian throat singing.
Jim Carroll