I remember some documentary with Jack White talking about how he tries to make music composition more difficult on purpose. I had a very similar reaction to you

I remember some documentary with Jack White talking about how he tries to make music composition more difficult on purpose. I had a very similar reaction to yours--the example they played under his voice over wasn't very impressive to me and I'm not much of a Jack White fan to begin with. Now that I'm writing this, I suppose one useful concept is that of constraints promoting creativity by forcing you to come at the blank canvas from a different mindset than you're used to. I suppose there are some times to struggle and grow but other times, like a competitive swimmer shedding his 'drags', to engage our full unhindered capacity free of such artificial handicaps. Another musical example for me is the band Amaranthe. They usually make extensive use of modern production techniques but their talent is also very evident when they're unplugged: https://www.youtube.com/embed/J4Jhpx2Qmz4?start=61&end=290 https://www.youtube.com/embed/J4Jhpx2Qmz4?start=61&end=290 Music video for the same song: https://youtu.be/D8lV1To-_fU https://youtu.be/D8lV1To-_fU