Well done Joan - you've put your finger right on the spot(s)...
For me the most important thing is the buzz of playing to a live audience and having them respond because I've got it right for them...
Therefore I play anything that I've heard and like right up to the present day (although I find that I'm increasingly rejecting more and more of the very latest stuff - rap etc) but singers like Coldplay - Clocks; Katie Melua - Closest thing to crazy; and Gabrielle - Rise are just superb examples of beautiful melodic harmonic sounds that still make the hairs on my head stand on end, and I want to play them well to a live and receptive audience. So I guess the psychologists would tell me that it's recognition that I'm after...
Is that how both you John's feel?
Rog