Is music worthwhile?

The other day I had a somewhat unpleasant conversation with a colleague who stated (with a conviction that seemed to exclude discussion) that music was "just recreation" and therefore "a luxury we can do without". I got quite upset about this, and tried (in vain) to explain my view that music is one of many different ways to cope. To me, the arts fulfill a similar function as dreaming (not in the sense of hoping for something, but in the sense of processing your day while you sleep). Not having the arts would be like sleep depravation, which can lead to insanity quite quickly.

But the discussion did raise an interesting question, namely whether it is really necessary to be active in the arts, or whether a more passive, receptive role is good enough. I think that it is basically a question of personality, and more specifically of the way you learn. I personally only really learn things when I do them myself. Hearing/watching someone explain something, helps, but is only the starting point. I realize that this is not very efficient - I am basically reinventing the wheel again and again - but I don't seem to have much of a choice. 

Learning styles are already well-known (check out, for example, "The Art of the Possible" by Dawna Markova). What I would like to see, is a study on the relationship between between learning styles and other aspects of your personality. Could it be, for example, that my learning style is linked to my difficulty in accepting authority? And if so, is that a result of having been born a close second (a recent Swedish study indicated that on average, first born are much more likely to accept authority than their younger siblings)? If so, it might be possible to find a statistically significant correlation between artistic inclination (though not necessarily talent or skill) and the position in the family. 

All very interesting questions that I cannot answer.  But if anyone has some input on this ...