kendall, I tend to agree with you on pretty much all your points. I think music sounds all the sweeter when it ends a healthy helping of silence (relative, of course). Even as a boy, I can remember going fishing with my cousin. He had to have some sort of sound blaring at him all the time, while I could be content to sit in the boat for hours, never moving, never having a nibble, just listening to nature's quiet. Needless to say, about two fishing trips together was enough for both of us to forswear ever trying it again. I DO like just about any type of music, tho'. I just have some strict definitions of what is music and what is noise - and my noise definition would probably include many things composed as 'serious' music.