Music, aesthetics, judgment, and worship

Listening to some new music in conjunction with several conversations has lead me to ponder the purpose and meaning of music. While most questions remain unanswered, I have stumbled across some ideas. For instance, when judging good music from bad, C. S. Lewis’ principle with regarded to literary criticism could. Also, what roles does aesthetics play in worship?
At the heart of Lewis’ masterpiece on literary criticism (Experiment in Criticism, 1961) is his warning to be more careful and responsible with negative judgments of books. The machinery Lewis uses to commend such an effort is a transformation in the way criticism is conducted:
“Literary criticism is traditionally employed in judging books. Any judgment it implies about men’s reading of books is a corollary from its judgment on the books themselves. Bad taste is, as it were by definition, a taste for bad books. I want to find what sort of picture we shall get by reversing the process. Let us make our distinctions between readers or types of reading the basis, and our distinction between books the corollary. Let us try to discover how far it might be plausible to define a good book as a book which is read in one way, and a bad book as a book which is read in another.”
Although Lewis focuses on literature, he does mention music several times, and I think the extension of his thesis to music is not only logical, but also practical. Too often people throw around categorical musical judgments. I see these judgments coming from two different camps. First, the conservative camp dismisses too much popular music as morally deficient, but usually with very tenuous philosophical arguments. Second, and perhaps the more importantly, cultured people dismiss all popular music as aesthetically barren. The problem is that those judging often times are judging music they don’t listen too. Those who do listen to a variety of music tend to judge genres they don’t enjoy as kitsch.
The reason I am writing is that I think discussions over music could use a little more courtesy than they often carry. It is too easy to pass judgment on music itself. A plethora of personal preferences turn into complex arguments. Lets turn the tables, stop evaluating music by itself, and start looking at what kind of listening it allows and invites in its listeners. I, for instance, can find no aesthetic value at all in rap music. It is all energy and rhythm to me, but I know a lot of people that enjoy rap. I rarely talk to them about how they enjoy it. If everyone said the enjoyed rap simply because it feels good and it has energy, then perhaps I could write it off as bad music. However, the process might be helpful. It would surely yield lots of information about the people I know, and it would be the Christian thing to do. Humans are not the best at judging, so if we must judge let us be very careful.

My second thought is really a question. My church has been driven by the principle of “undistracting excellence” in its worship. I have always liked this idea. However, if one accepts Lewis’ paradigm for judging good art, one runs into a problem.
To extend Lewis to music, good music would be music that allows or invites good listening. Listening that would seek to receive and not just to use music. It would not just take the tune, and forget about the rest; it would not use the song to get at some other pleasure or object. The nature of aesthetic excellence is that it is appreciated for itself; it stands alone as an object worthy of observation.
The problem in worship is that the object received is not music. Music is used, in the worst sense, to get to something else: namely pious affections and worship of God. Worship shouldn’t dwell on music for its own sake. That would be to lose worship. Sure, there is a sense where excellence glorifies God in itself, but not in the direct sense most often desired in the worship service. This is not just a problem for how one does worship music, but is also for how one listens to it. Being a good listener or player of music and the experience most seek in a worship service seem incompatible.
What does one make of this? I am not sure. It is a question that is haunting me.

UPDATE:
After thinking this through some more I have concluded that the obvious answer is that music is not a big thing in worship. Worship is all about God, and getting to him. Sometimes music can help get us there. Music is not art in the worship service, even though it can be done well. Neither high art nor popular music will solve worship problems. Rather one ought to extend charity to everyone in this discussion. Loving our brother, different as he is, might also help us get to God.