Would traditional music survive if it was never sung in clubs at all? The answer is surely "yes" - it's been collected and documented as far as it can be now, and much of it has been recorded. It won't die for those reasons - but whether people will sing it or not, or play it or not, will depend on whim, fancy, fashion, vogue.

I've been working my way through a recently-acquired s/h copy of the Northumbrian Pipers' Second Tune Book (1981) during the last day or two. It's a wonderful collection but - d'ye know - if I had to black out all the ones by known composers, I'd lose half the material. And what wonderful material! Here's a tiny sample:

The Carrick Hornpipe (Billy Pigg)
Gateshead Stadium (Forster Charlton)
The Road To Jack's (Richard Butler)
Elsey's Waltz (Archie Dagg)
The South Shore (James Hill)
The Biddlestone Hornpipe (Billy Pigg)
Rowantree Hill (Jack Armstrong)

and many, many others - all "second movement", as you might say, and nearly all composed within the last 80 years or so. How could we not play these because they're not "traditional"?