Jon, Not trying to be critical, just trying to understand what you are saying. You quote....."there's only two kinds of music - good music and bad music.".....

Seems to me that there's a lot of mediocre stuff in between those extremes, some of which even came from The Sixties.

I would say that there is quite a lot of sentimentality in traditional folk. Here are a few lines that I can think of offhand.
...and we lowered him overboard and he drifted with the tide...
...I cried 'Oh Lord what have I done'
...by love's light my foot finds the old pathway to thee...

Art, I liked The Sixties, but I'm old enough to remember The Fifties as well. I think that's when folk music started for me.

Barbara Shaw, I think it's too late for me to start learning. Don't worry about no one carrying on the music, the good stuff will survive. That's why folk is good, the bad stuff got left by the wayside.

Get's me to a personal thought. Folk singers have a duty to sing the songs that they themselves like, whatever their age or origin. Then there will be less of the good stuff lost.

Bert.