I want to preface this by saying that this is a reflection, and not intended as a prescription. My avoiding certain ideas and approaches is fueled by an evolving experience, and the way I project it.

Lately I feel myself becoming disillusioned by the way music is sometimes dismissed. In particular when abstractions overshadow the raw experience of sound. Music can invite discussion of culture, genre, theory, and our personal biases, but when things like this dictate the experience, I can't help but feel like something vital is lost.

Take a band like Muse; a band I was especially fond of in my early teens. For me, I think they're a band that reflects this. I have always felt that their music, like so much I loved growing up, carries a sense of aggrandisement. I believe though that it's an awareness of abstractions surrounding the music which gives that perception, and when you are young, you have less of an awareness of these abstractions. Rather than aggrandising, it j