Being compelled

I've been on a fairly consistent diet for nearly three years of mostly emotionally reserved music--contemporary classical and, for the last year, more jazz. Some of this music is of course emotionally rich, but it leaves a lot more for the listener to fill in than, say, indie pop, with its anthemic I-IV rockouts which are probably, on some level, my lifeblood. I think of Louis Andriessen, who wrote once that he did not find Mahler's music compelling, because he was always being compelled by it. By comparison to the "new music" in which I've lately been immersed, the pop music of my high school and early college years comes like an injection of adrenaline. An evening of listening to this music after weeks or months of denial feels like a cup of strong coffee after a period of abstinence from caffeine: I immediately recognize the energizing power of this substance, but it also leaves me wondering if it can really be healthy to drink it on a regular basis, and I have a difficult time concentrating afterward.