Self Satisfaction Vs Audience Admiration

When I begin to write a piece of music, what is the original inspiration for it? What is the driving force that leads me to begin arranging chords and picking out words to fit with them?

I've spoken quite a lot recently about respect for audience, about giving the audience something they can relate to, something they will connect with and something that they will take away with them. My performances revolve around a desire to please the people in the room that are listening to me. If no one is there or no one is paying me any attention then that's OK, I will simply perform for myself, but if people are listening then I feel I need to return that respect and play for them.

I also have a distaste for people who repeatedly break from the above and seem to pay the audience no respect yet expect the audiences ears in return.

However I am starting to rethink this attitude to performance.

When I begin working on a song the only thing I am worried about is expressing whatever ideas or emotions initially inspired me to start writing. The chords I chose are the ones that to my ears sound the best. Same with the lyrics. Whatever words best fit the story I am telling, they're the ones I use.

So why should I suddenly change my attitudes to the production of sound when I am onstage in front of an audience? Why onstage do my motivations now surround satisfying the audience and what they expect from a performance instead of a personal expression of ideas and me playing my music how I want to?

Watching a documentary about the 70s prog rock scene, many of the artists interviewed talked about how their performances were incredibly self indulgent and that the expectations of the audience were totally disregarded. I got the impression that by doing this, the musicians could totally submerge themselves into producing the sounds they had created during writing/rehearsal sessions which then in turn resulted in better performances and a more enjoyable night for the audience.

One of the featured bands talked about their perfect audience being sat down, quietly listening to the music, not jumping about, dancing and rocking out.

It seems a bizarre notion for the artist to have expectations for the audience to fulfill when we are so used to the artist having to fulfill the expectations of the audience. How many times have people left a gig complaining that the band didn't play their favourite song or that they weren't as good as they were on telly. I wonder how many times gig goers have asked themselves, did I pay that act enough attention?

I'm not saying that as an artist I will now totally disregard the notion of audience satisfaction and will purely seek to indulge my own musical fantasies onstage, however, do I need to be busting my balls before every performance, worrying about how the performance is going to sound for those listening? Should I maybe just worry about whats going to make me the happiest when playing the songs I spend so much time working on?