Turn Down the Amplifiers

[brewshooter]

What doc...WHAT?!?!?!?
Seriously though, my parents both have hearing aids at this point. My dad needed them for a long time, like ten years, before finally getting around to having his ears checked. I suppose all the shooting and running of the chainsaw all those years without proper hearing protection didn't help his situation.

 

[philobeddoe]

I've been going to drag races since literally before I was born. Back in the day my parents would simply stick cotton balls in my ears as a baby/kid. I'm not kidding or exaggerating when I say I've NEVER experienced silence! I've had tinnitus since I was a baby. I was in college before I realized that not everyone heard constant ringing and screaming in their ears, I really thought it was normal. Add dozens of Thrash Metal shows into the mix and you get constant neverending screaming in my ears. So, gentlemen, protect your kids ears as well as your own!

 

[daytonsean]

We went to the Cannibal Corpse show last month. My lobes were sore the next day.

 

[instymp]

+1 Doc, & I don't think Medicare or a lot of insurance pays for them. I am there now & tinnitus don't go away.

 

[profpar]

The empirical evidence seems to suggest that tolerance to loud noise varies inversely with age. Twenty five years ago I would try to position my self close to the speakers when a loud band played at the college tavern and went to concerts firmly convinced of the axiom, "the louder the better". Today my system can no longer tolerate that many decibels and would find such loud music uncomfortable to the point of unbearable, even with ear plugs. I remember visiting the French quarter of New Orleans trying to find some where that my colleague and I could simply sit down for a beer and hear each other talk, with virtually no success. Assuming my experiences not to be atypical, I would venture to hypothesize that perhaps the growing intolerance to very loud noise may equate to physiological changes in the air canal, but that is just pure speculation.

 

[mrjerke]

Being a professional musician for a number of years I have probably lost a good bit of hearing. I know what seems normal to me is quite loud to my wife. I still like to crank it up though!

 

[mso489]

papipeguy, I love your posting. I think we dishonor the experience of music when we play it unendingly as

background to our lives. And I think we miss the music of the world by tuning out the sounds around us,

which frequently, though not technically music in the art sense, is really rhythmic, musical, and tells us a lot

about our surroundings. Also, I like listening to music with musicians because they don't talk, they actually

focus on the music. Why is music so often used as a prompt for conversation? Then of course, the music is

turned up too loud so people can't really talk. I think there is much confusion about the respect and role of

music in our lives. At least, it's something to consider.

 

[numbersix]

I find music way too loud at concerts and events like weddings.

Even at a young age (18+) I couldn't take the bar scene with music playing so loud you couldn't hear yourself think, let alone talk. I wasn't the coolest dude in the first place, but nothing is more pathetic than a bunch of 18 year guys standing together, looking awkward, not talking to each other because the music is too loud, nursing their beers! lol!

 

[papipeguy]

mso489, thanks and I appreciate your take on this topic. It is intersting that you notice that musicians tend to listen and not dance or carry on while watching others perform. On the rare occassions that I do go out to listen to ohters play someone in our group will usually ask me what's wrong or why am I not moving around. I simply tell them that I'm giving the player(s) what they really deserve- and that's my undivided attention.

 

[hobie1dog]

I walked out on a Neil Young concert years ago after the first song...it was so loud that we couldn't tell what they were singing.
I like to "feel" the music. My new 8 foot long subwoofer with (4) 18" Obsidian drivers is awesome.