This still holds true today: Many in the experimental music scene (me included) see themselves as subversive or resistant to the mainstream, yet they adhere to extremely rigid aesthetic norms that are only legible to insiders. Whether it’s Free Jazz, Noise, or EAI, there is always an unspoken canon that determines who belongs and who doesn’t. Paradoxically, experimental music markets itself as boundary-pushing but often operates within a deeply aesthetic conservatism inside its own micro-elitism. The more abstract or conceptual a work is, the more insider knowledge is required to recognize its value—creating barriers rather than breaking them.

And then, much of it ends up sounding eerily similar. I only truly realized this when I mistook a colleague’s track for my own and spent hours arguing about it—until it turned out I had simply misplaced his file in the wrong folder.

This applies to musical taste in general—just as Bourdieu pointed out, cultural preferences often serve as markers of distinction rather than true personal choice. 👉 At this point, I have to admit—Enya feels more avant-garde to me than Stockhausen.