It is no secret that prolonged exposure to loud sound is highly damaging to our hearing. Listening to loud music is one of the common factors leading to degraded hearing ability and tinnitus, and is deeply unhealthy.
At the same time, such level of noise negatively impacts the quality of sound perception, which degrades the musical side of the musical performance.
In what seems to be the echoes of the so-called “loudness war”, bands still stick to the idea that “the louder you blast it - the better”. But it’s not true. There are many other ways to energize the crowd without causing them sound damage, and I’d love to see more of those, instead of them trying to be the loudest ever.
We’re way beyond that. Overly loud bands are so 1980s. Overly loud rock bands are why I became a Blues fan.
However these days I’m more concerned about sporting events. In the last year I’ve been to multiple hockey games where the volume is painful and my watch frequently records over 100bB. The new Islanders arena was absolute worst, with every announcement or music over 90 dB and peaking at 115dB. Do you know what would energize me more than covering my ears in pain? Being able to hear the crowd, participate in cheers or chants
Quiet concerts will probably be a thing if a big artist fronts it. Could be a cool concept
I’m taking live sound classes at my community college right now and we talked about this yesterday. The biggest issue with a large venue packed with people is the noise floor is very high. For instance if the crowd is 90db, then you’ve only got 10-20db of headroom to work with. 90db is already enough to cause hearing damage after 8 hours, and it gets exponentially worse with just a few db more, by 100 you can only safely be in that for 2 hours and that is generally the ideal loudness for that kind of venue. Of course since the engineers probably have hearing loss, they tend to raise it even higher to 110 which is loud enough to still cause damage over time even with regular earbuds unfortunately. So unless you can have a quiet crowd there is nothing you can do about needing ear protection, I recommend hanging by the engineer booth because they tend to be just far enough away to comfortably hear everything around 90db because they generally can’t use earbuds while actively mixing.
On the alternate I’ve been to concerts where you just couldn’t hear the band playing unless you pressed into everyone at the front. Was a terrible experience and felt like I wasted my money. I’m a big fan of putting in ear plugs, eating an edible and then riding out the vibrations. I agree there must be a good middle ground but I would rather it too loud with ear pro than too quiet.
Same issue I mentioned in my comment! There’s a constant battle happening between the audio engineers and the noise floor of the the venue. It surprisingly doesn’t take too much more db to be heard above the crowd, like in a perfect world, if the crowd is sitting at 90db then 95db would be ideal. But unfortunately a crowd’s loudness ebs and flows and that can easily get drowned out so most just default to 100db and embrace the inevitable tinnitus. I recommend everyone invest in Earasers or something of that quality so y’all can appreciate music safely without losing all of the dynamics.
I see! At some point powerful vibes can be gone as well - which is something I do not normally consider since I’m not necessarily into hardcore metal or something.
Doesn’t need to be metal to have a bass or drum line that shakes your ass.
I wear musicians earplugs pretty much any time I’m in a crowded place because the people are the loudest and noisiest things. A quieter music act would be quickly drowned out. But, the earplugs help me hear everything better (the music, the people next to me trying to talk to me, general situational awareness) because they only block the damaging parts to the sound without muffling everything.
If you have ever felt the relief of silence after being in a noisy environment, musicians earplugs on a keychain with you always will change the way you interact with the loud world we live in. They have saved me from unnecessary stress, anxiety, and further hearing loss at work, on a night out with friends, crowded bars, clubs, outdoor events, conferences, malls. I appreciate well engineered sound design, like FEELING the sound wash over and through me. But bad acoustics, noisy people, and tinnitus stress me the fuck out.
TLDR: I wear musicians earplugs mostly because of people and they help me hear everything better and feel better even if they’re not needed to avoid injury.
Went to a local rock concert once. Had to go into the middle of the crowd to fetch a friend and alert him of something that had happened. The music was unbearably loud for me. Noticed that virtually everyone was wearing ear plugs.
Found it absurd. Why not lower the volume instead and have people forego the plugs? Less noise pollution in the local area too. After the concert was over I asked some participants about it. Everyone claimed they liked the loudness or that it was necessary somehow. My impression: they liked to keep up with the appearances of being hardcore, it being for tough folks. But they didn’t want the actual hearing damage.
Found it absurd. Why not lower the volume instead and have people forego the plugs?
Some people like to be able to feel the music. I have been at music concerts with deaf people who were enjoying the shit out of it.
Exactly. I’m there to lose myself in the crowd and to feel the music. Being right up near the amps makes me feel alive. Every bass drum beat feels like it’s kicking you in the chest, every time the pyros go off you feel the heat on your face, mosh pits open up spontaneously around you, it’s some of the most fun I’ve ever had. If I just want to listen to the band I’ll stay home and put an album on, save myself a hundred bucks.
