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Compression is nothing new. In fact, much of the "classic" music used as an example is way more compressed than anything on a CD. Old style 33 rpm records (and cassette tapes) just couldn't handle the dynamic range that real music presents.
When CDs came out, artists went out of their way to use all of the dynamic range. Pull out your copy of NIN's Downward Spiral, and you will see dynamic range. The volume levels over that disc is impressive.
However, the sad reality is that almost all FM radio, television, and even sat radio compresses the heck out of music. In FM, it is done to offer a more consistant sound and to extend the broadcast range of the signal (and to keep the sound balanced between higher and lower frequencies). TV has the same issue, also using the same method for transmission.
MP3s, especially crappy rips do nothing to help the issue. Many people listen to ripped CDs on their Ipods that have been sampled at fairly low rates, giving poor dynamic range and reduced high frequency response. You need to sample at least twice the highest frequence you will want to sample to hear it properly, and even then you lose - 4 times is pretty much the standard (96khz, which means 4 times 24khz). Many end users sample small to get the smallest files possible, not realizing the effects of undersampling. Most of the music traded on P2P networks and such has been ripped, compressed in the process, and had all it's dynamic range squeezed out by poorer quality software decoding schemes.
Compressing the sound as you put it on a CD does nothing more than bring the sound on a CD in line with what the consumer hears on the radio, on TV, at the movies, and on their ripped MP3s.
Nothing shocking.
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