I guess there's nothing left for me to say about that....
There's nothing intrinsically wrong with newer music, of course -- so long as it's good music. Our choirs frequently sing newer stuff (as anthems), and it can be excellent.
Perhaps the difference is that "praise stuff" is typically written for a small group/lead singer, which can easily lead to the narcissism mentioned in the article. The small group ends up performing for the congregation, and there's always that tendency to "make the song mine," even if the congregation gets to sing the refrain. It turns into show biz.
Music written for choirs, or for the congregation is obviously different -- it would be ridiculous if everybody in the large group tried to "make the song mine." The motivation is rather to "be a helpful part of the group," which is the point of music in public worship.
or, Why I Avoid the Five-Thirty Youth Mass.
They pass out the words, but not the music, and the tunes are that vague wandering stuff with no beginning and no end so that they cannot be learned by ear before you get to the last verse. So the "song leader" cum guitar winds up singing all by himself, and yeah, it does sound a bit self-indulgent. The fact that he has a voice like a lounge singer doesn't help. "Feelings . . . wo wo wo . . . nothing more than Feelings . . . . " My kids HATE it, don't know who the organizers think they're reaching. As Alfred E. Neuman (NOT Neumann) used to say, "Yecccch!"
My daughter prefers to go to either the 10 or 11:30 Mass anyhow. For one thing, she gets to hear a decent choir (which is getting better all the time! Hooray!), and for another since she's an altar server she likes to watch the routine when she's not in the middle of it. She says it's very hard because the Catholic altar server routine is similar but subtly different from the Episcopalian version - so that it's tough to catch the variations.
Last weekend she served the 8:30 a.m. Sunday Mass, and none of the other altar servers showed up except for the leader (they are long-term servers drawn from the high school boys) and the two of them had to work the whole deal. They were as busy as . . . (fill in your favorite paperhanger or yellowjacket joke here), but she was thrilled because she got to assist at the altar for the first time since we changed churches. She had just been promoted to the altar when we moved, that was a major disappointment for her.
I'm really thrilled with how well our new music director is doing. At the rate we're going, we should be issuing a CD soon < g >.
If a choir performs while everybody else listens, it is just as bad as if there is a praise band up there.
All singing should be corporate.