Music, Emotions, and Authenticity

How do I know when my worship is genuine?
Do I know because I feel it?
How do I know that when I'm singing songs and the music is swelling that what I feel is devotion to God and not just some emotional reaction that got triggered by particular sound waves wafting into my brain? (Well I guess I know because I don't always find the music we sing to be particularly moving...)
Music is manipulative. Don't get me wrong-I love it, but music adds a lot to an experience that would not be there otherwise. I don't think any of the movies I watch would be anywhere near as compelling without the soundtrack. In fact, I know this to be true because I've seen the deleted scenes that they didn't write any music for, and they seem sort of empty.
So what is happening when we all get together and start singing these songs and feeling good?
Is it just the music talking?
I think one of the situations where I notice this most is during prayer. It is a pretty common practice in a lot of fantastic churches to have somebody get up there and start stroking the strings while someone else leads us in prayer. I'm not a big fan. I think it's because I feel manipulated. Instead of focusing on what a person is saying and agreeing with them, making their prayer my own, there is this other thing going on, making it feel like it supposed to be some kind of dramatic event. I'm probably being overly critical. I have a tendency to do that. However, I think there is a difference between emotional experience and spiritual engagement. Our prayers can be sober. They can be fairly free of emotion, and we still mean what we say. We are still engaging with God. On the other hand, it is good for us to be moved emotionally by our interaction with God. I don't have a problem with emotions. I guess to sum up my concern, I will just say that emotions are good, and it's great to experience them in worship, I just want the reason we are experiencing them to be because of God and not because of music.

But perhaps I am coming at this from the wrong perspective. Maybe the music isn't really for the people who are coming together for worship. Maybe the music is just one piece of this big community expression we are offering to God. The music is just a platform for a bunch of people who love God to tell God that they love Him. That sort of makes the emotional question rather irrelevant.

Maybe to shoot myself in the foot one more time I will just add that while I think this is true, I also think different people have different music that they connect with. Different experiences help them engage with God differently. Some people are inspired by organ music, others love electric guitar. Some people like to sing a capella and clap their hands. Maybe certain music works better for certain people because that music is more an expression of who they are and how they relate to God?
Maybe. But nevertheless, if Paul and his buddies can sing hymns to God in jail, maybe we can be a little flexible too.