Intro to This Is Your Brain On Music

Daniel Levitin's introduction to This Is Your Brain On Music raised a lot of interesting questions.  The question I was most interested in was about the distinction made between performers and listeners.  He points out that in other cultures, everybody sings and makes music, regardless of whether they are thought to be "good" at it or not.  I've noticed in my own experiences that people are very shy about singing in front of others unless they know they are good at it.  It seems that there is more emphasis on the audience's reception of music than on how the person feels when they sing or make music.

Everybody likes to sing, whether they will admit it or not.  Singing just feels good.  It's happy!  But then why do so few people sing openly, whenever they feel like it?  My own roommate, who has a great voice, wont sing when I'm in the room.  I wont play my keyboard if she's in the room.  I wont even sing in the shower, for fear of somebody overhearing me.  This is because we are all too preoccupied with how our audience is perceiving us.  Singing and playing an instrument has become something done to please other people.  If you can't do it well, then don't do it at all.  But music is such a fun thing to participate in that it's unfair to ban certain people from doing it just because they aren't "good" at it.  As much as I like to listen to music, I'd rather play my favorite song than simply hear it.  

Music is an experience; it is something that people want to be involved in, not just observe from the sidelines.  However, people's insecurities prevent them from singing or playing an instrument openly.  Our society seems to think that making music is all about pleasing the audience.  But I think it should be about the musician pleasing him or herself.  Music can make people happy and release tension.  It is even used as a form of therapy.  Nobody should be deprived of such a useful tool just because they may not be "good" at it.  People need to be a little more selfish and just make music for themselves, not for their audience.

Question:  Why does our society place more emphasis on the audience's reception of music, instead of the musician's satisfaction?