Brian Peters is having this same discussion of Facebook.
This is what I said there:-

I seem to remember a famous film of Sharp morris dancing in his garden with various luminaries of the classical music scene. he looks rather wacky. And there i think you have the whole story. A man immersed in the past who does valuable work - preserving collecting folk songs ets. I suppose the trouble starts to occur with his followers who turn a recognition of the past and its values, into an indifference to the present. These were the years when Armstrong, Biederbecke, Ma Rainey and others were making their own vital contribution to the common tongue. Ignore , indeed purposefully ignore the world you live in, and your artform is headed for trouble.