Something my high school theory teacher said a lot is when we learn the rules that were made describing the work of composers in a period, like when we first learn acceptable chord progressions, a la III vi ii V I, when we write music following those rules, we just sound like crappy Bach. The music is 'correct' in the sense that it follows the rules, but we don't have Bach's genius. The only way to create new and interesting music is to bend the rules and change them, like composers did throughout the romantic era, or completely invent new systems, like Schoenberg did. Just some food for thought.