Muse are Sublime!

For too long in Philosophy, humanity's interaction with the arts has been down played. We are, in some sense, besotted with the 'Form' of art, the sacred entity that can somehow reveal some essence hidden beneath the canvass, an essence that cannot be seen, only 'seen'. Art for philosophers, and, implicitly, for we spectators and listeners of art, has been art in virtue of some rigid criteria, or a participation is not immutable 'form'. Art has been reduced to an extent that all meaning and significance is lost, instead art becomes a matter of fulfilling some prescribed 'art criteria'. Works of art are products of 'art' qua 'form', or 'art' qua 'criteria'. This, we might say, has been taken to the extreme in consumerism, wherein music and art literally become products, products a that are merely pleasing to look at or listen to, but do not spark any existential movements within us. Such art changes nothing, we are unchanged, the world is unchanged.
This is particularly true in music, especially since it is more commonly referred to as an industry; a mere economic component. All that is achieved in consumerist music is the requirements needed for celebrity status. Such 'artists' are worshipped because they have fulfilled societies expectations. They are famous for being seen by millions, what they do is a mere by-product. I, of course, am referring to those singers churned out of 'X-factor', the disgustingly cheesy boy bands and the likes of Mika. You get the picture. There is nothing sublime about the aesthetic experience such people attempt to achieve; if they attempt it at all.
But, when I turn to classical music, or the likes of Muse, Yes or Florence+ the Machine, something stirs within me. This is not some expression of musical snobbery, there is a reason I abhor mass produced music. I am quite happy to say that mass produced music is good, it is catchy and pleasant to the ear, yet void of anything sublime. Take my experience of the Muse concert I attended at the O2 arena. The experience I had was unparalleled by any musical experience I had ever had. The spectacle the band produced through their music, the air of power they wielded over their instruments to produce music of such intense existential movements in the audience and myself, produced a heightened awareness of the triviality of a life lived by society. It was as if they were Greek Gods manipulating the very foundations of existence, moving us to a higher state of 'oneness', 'unity' and insignificance, but at the same time revealing the power and creativity of man within such utter emptiness. The world is revealed as a blank canvas, in which we as artists have the potential to paint something beautiful. More often than not modern man paints a dull picture.
The aesthetic phenomenon we experienced, our worship of Muse, (in the end the almost ritualistic devotion we evoked was reminiscent of some worship of the sublime), aided us in drawing life into perspective. For the time the spectators are engaged in their worship, they are dragged out of what Heidegger calls the 'they', namely the group consciousness with which we are intimately involved in. We are, for a time, just ourselves, stripped of the expectations and labels of society, we are allowed to 'be'. The intense power of music, the complex artistry and power Muse seemed to wield separates us from our integration, revealing the world as a complex of possibilities that are mine to own. We are, as it were, taken along by the power of music, realising that the routine of life we seem to value is illusory in the face of such concrete majesty. The subliminal in music comes from the extent it stirs our existential core, not what it reveals to us about noumena (a world beyond experience), rather music provides a palatable revelation of the chaos of life. Such are the views of Nietzsche and Schopenhauer, though the latter would have more metaphysical overtones. Nietzcshe was famous for saying, "truth is ugly. We possess art lest we perish of the truth", in other words, art makes the truth beautiful and empowering. We glimpse into chaos through art, but become empowered by our capacity to form order around the chaos through our own creative capacities. Life is about revealing ourselves to ourselves, what one is brave enough to accept and experience will reveal one's essence. Life is an engagement, not a conformation.