If a choir performs while everybody else listens, it is just as bad as if there is a praise band up there.
All singing should be corporate.
But if the choir is where it should be (in the rear gallery or behind the roodscreen) and in a church with good acoustics, it is not a performance per se. You can't see the singers, and the sound seems to come from around and above you. No single voice stands out (except in the incipit to some anthems), and the ideal "English" sound is clear, pure, blended, and as far from individual emotionalism or exhibitionism as you can get.
Now, I happen to believe that any congregation can sing chant if you concentrate on a couple of the most popular tones to begin with and teach by repetition. We are proving that in our church since our new music director came in -- you can actually HEAR the congregation singing now, and it's sort of a domino effect, they're singing the hymns now too!
Well, almost as bad. It is very, very hard to get THAT bad.
I've noticed that a great many of those who vehementy argue for praise bands are those actively involved in them. They have fun playing in them and don't want to give up their "gig" before a captive audience.
Reverence is a thing of the past. Nowadays, it is this sickening, presumptive over-familiarity with One whom John would not dare to approach in such a way (Rev.1 describes the Lord whom we no longer know after the flesh, but the glorified Lord, Whom upon seeing , the exiled apostle fell at his feet as though dead).
To Laodecean our Lord said:
You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich. (possibly a reference to acquiring a sound, growing Biblically-rooted faith. (Rev.3)