Good music or media hype?

The other day I went to a rehearsal with a fab bunch of brass players in the North East to get my practice time in before a trip to France in June and on arrival (albeit 10 minutes late because someone puts the 90 mile journey on elastic!) it was time to play a piece of music by a much hyped brass band composer!
The piece was Horizons by Paul Lovatt-Cooper. Of course, the sounds are harmless enough, it keeps the crowd pleased apparently, but in honesty I found it rather dull and just variations on other snippets of tunes put together in a rather unstructured fashion and also rather similar to the other pieces by him I have played or listened to.
Now, as a musician that's my opinion and I'm certainly not knocking someone for bringing enjoyment to the field and doing well out of it on the way; the bands seem to enjoy playing it and the audience enjoys hearing it so those boxes are ticked, but how does this writing of only average quality fair so much better compared to the genius of some of our other current and past composers? Is it purely down to the media hype surrounding the sensation of someone popularised by a top band, or because actually people believe it really is quality writing?
What's your views, why not have your say here.
Tabby