When I went to Folk clubs in the sixties and sevnties they were full, no one sang from crib sheets, floor singers generally were of a higher standard and bothered to make an effort to learn their words and attempted to maintain a certain standard of performance.
i have been questioned in the last two days about evidence to support the following statements
"So now I am going to say poor performance can damage any musical genre, albeit it in a temporary manner, but it can put some people off for a long time., so yes it[ POOR PERFOMANCE can harm any music"
"a performance that is poor harms the interpretation and perfomance of the song."
the evidence is clear to me, people are voting with their feet. relatively empty venues,PARTLY due to poor performance of floor singers who use crib sheets., who often have not practised with their crib sheets
I will make myself clear, I am not attempting to stop anyone from singing or performing, but i am pointing out evidence of how poor perfomance damages the music and its enjoyment., and puts off paying customers
Furthermore my experience has taught me that people are attracted to full venues but not third or half empty or if you like half full ones, that good floor singers avoid venues where the majority of singers have not practised, and that guest performers like to perform to full houses not to themselves.