There are many older congregations valiantly struggling to have their own choir. In one service we had two anthems and no sermon. In many cases people with a good musical ear find it unbearable to sit and listen to what is inflicted on them. They would rather get quality music from a CD at home. Where great care is taken to offer a mix of well known hymns, and perhaps a new one each month, good congregational singing is usually acceptable.
Most people enjoy singing three or four hymns during a morning service.
But with musical tastes differing so much, we may need two or three kinds of service with music to suit the older and the younger generations, and another for those whose musical taste is quite different. That does not solve the problem of good tunes conveying bad theology. Every hymn writer takes the opportunity of giving his or her slant on the good news of the Bible. Victorian hymns had a depressing emphasis on our sinfulness, the awful agonies that our poor Jesus suffered, and the imminent prospect of death. Others use words we no longer understand, strung together with cliches.