This is a depressing thread but I think it contains many truths. Young people today are so used to slick, technically perfect, overproduced music and yes, DJ's and canned music have taken over at many venues. I have a friend who played locally in pop music for several years - he was judged on how closely what he did sounded like what people had heard on the radio. I've also had the experiece that Jerry had - a folk venue where when you mention "traditional" the door gets slammed in your face (in the case it was the telephone receiver). I used to live in Germany during the 1970's and there was still German folk music around. Most especially at Festivals and things like that it was heard and enjoyed (and danced to!). I came to know many of the German folk songs and so I was overjoyed when, a couple of years ago, the company I was working for sent me to a trade show in Munich during Oktoberfest. I was so looking forward to hearing the old German folk songs again and singing along. Alas, the
"theme song" seemed to be "Heyyyyy Baby - I wanna know if you'll be my girl..." closely followed by "Country Roads" (a song I have come to absolutely despise). I sat next to a couple with their teenaged son one evening and asked them what happened to the old German songs. They said you don't hear them anymore and that they missed them too. The son remarked that he thought this was a good thing, because "international" music brought people together. Most of the stuff I was hearing wasn't "international" it was American and very bland generic junk it was.