Apparently Loud May Be Too Loud

With the advent of the CD,  mastering traditionally used to prevent overload with vinyl discs evolved to become part of the sound itself, so much so that today you often get the so called "wall of sound" effect or "brick wall" limiting.  We at CSS Music use compression sparingly.  Apparent loudness used wisely can give a track or parts thereof a certain amount of punch.  It can tie the elements of a recording together.  This is good.  What isn't so good is when natural dynamic range is totally sacrificed. Music needs to breathe.  Production Music that is over mastered or over compressed, in our opinion, robs end users of the ability to adjust the music to suit the production.  Often times productions are broadcast and the music is "stepped on" one more time.

What do you think about "over mastering" and apparent loudness?