Invasion of the Liturgy Snatchers
From Barbara Nicolosi excellent blog Church of the Masses she posted:
The pews were mostly empty. Only a few of us suffering stalwarts would trickle in week after week, staring blankly ahead, victims of the liturgical beauty lobotomy.
Liturgical beauty lobotomy that explains it. Today my wife and I went to a church we don't normally attend, for reasons that will become evident. Their choir contains an electric bass player, guitarist, and drummer along with the Gather hymnal, a normally toxic combination. The music was sung in that sixties style which was probably popular in hippie communes. The air was electrically charged with that potential kumbaya moment which could breakout at any time. They also used the Agnus Dei 2.0 "Now with extra verses", though they were nice enough to leave in the Lamb of God part. Since they were using non standard refrains they had to mention them before the next verse in that "all together now" kind of voice. I am just glad they didn't ask for verse requests. I thought that it couldn't get worse, I was mistaken. The maracas unrestrainedly used during the Communion song put me into a musical meltdown, my core had gone critical in this percussive attack.
I pondered how is it that all these people appear immune to the musical shenanigans. Was my wife and I the only ones bothered? Did all of these Church members have, to steal Barbara's words, liturgical beauty lobotomies performed. Or is it more insidious than that. What if there are alien liturgists slowly taking over the world. One day you go to bed hating the OCP and GIA hymnals and while you sleep a giant vegetable pod placed in your proximity slowly assumes your features. You wake up humming "Gather us in" and suddenly develop an allergy to chant. The liturgical pod people are all around us and we must do something now. I know that I am going to be extra careful to make sure there are no six foot vegetable products around my house before I sleep. I also have visions of one day walking into one of these churches and having the congregation turn around and point at us making the "HSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS" sound.
Known as 
I picked up a book called "The Catholic Mass" as it appeared to have a number of good references to ecclesiastical documents, looked to be well-researched, footnoted, etc., as I wished to learn more about the historical origins of the parts of the Mass.
Looks can be deceiving. I began seeing some questionable statements in the first chapter, and then IT reared its ugly head: a sentence of enthusiastic approval for the fact that "Some churches have continued the reforms of V2, adding beauty to the Mass by instituting liturgical dances to interpret the parts of the Mass and the Scripture readings." Argh! Yuck!
I then noted that there was no imprimatur. From now on I'm going to look for the Good Catholicism Seal of Approval before I buy a book.
I have actually made the odyssey the other direction. When I became Catholic, OCP and GIA were the standards and it has taken me years to articulate what I find problematic with them - and to be honest there are still some 'modern' hymns that I love. Also, in defense of hippie communes, the music there was resolutely acoustic - the electronica was reserved for concert events.
There is indeed a place for dances of worship to our God - just not in the Eucharistic liturgy. A big problem that I see is that as the Mass was re-emphasised over private devotions (a much needed reform from V2, I think), the great unwashed masses started to get the idea that unless something was in the Mass, it had no worth. So out went the Rosary, the Liturgy of the Hours, Benediction, perpetual adoration, and who knows what all else that I have never heard of, not being an older cradle Catholic.
I have the exact same observation about what goes on at shul. Your remarks about pod people are apt. What I have seen at the few shul services I've been to in the last 8 years and what I see when I go to Catholic church with my friends are unnervingly similar. It is just exactly what you have described here and worse. Strumming guitars and singing like Paul Stookey.
(Hippie commune singing, in fact, did not sound like this. It was much more passionate and full of genuine emotion. Modern liturgy seems to make an effort not to offend by intensity.)
I suppose guitar shul was instituted to attract younger people, but attendance is minimal here -- a few bewildered-looking elderly people and a couple too-enthusiastic kids dancing in a side aisle to what they clearly thought was a secular concert was about it last time I went.
In Jewish temple, dancing to the glory of God is and should be part of it, but I still am one of those diehards that think Hee Haw shouldn't replace Horas. Thank you.