The Death of Quartets?

There seems to be a somewhat common theme running through southern gospel blogs these days. It kind of goes like this...southern gospel quartets are dead. Gold City has new singers at every position in a short amount of time. Palmetto State is a shadow of its former self. Old Time Gospel Quartet, like Mercy's Mark is defunct. The Perrys don't count because they're a mixed group. It goes on and on.

I contend that if quartets, that traditional four-part harmony configuration that stated the phenomenon, is dead, so is the genre as we know it. Some would applaud this, but they also ignore the tremendous popularity of the Gaither Vocal Band and Ernie Haase and Signature Sound.
So, how can you have it both ways? You can't. I contend that bad quartets are dying. I know, Mercy's Mark was good and so was the Old Time Gospel Hour Quartet, but they suffered from few dates and bad publicity (MM had so many defections, notably Anthony Facello and Chris West, that they had no continuity).

If this genre is to survive, we'd all better hope that Gold City, the Perrys and EHSSQ continue on as viable players. If they do not, we'll all be singing and listening to those obnoxious choruses that our well-meaning clergy and ministers of music think are so great. Think about that.