Musicians often strongly crave loud music, sometimes at the expense of their health. But according to an Australian study on people who frequent night clubs and music venues, most concert attendees may actually prefer it to be a little less loud.Īll of this ties into the larger idea of sound, how we consume it and the types of emotions we associate with it.
This may be to the benefit of venue owners, as one study found that people are more likely to buy drinks in louder music venues. The loudness wars, which can be traced back to the advent of the CD and even records, has created an environment where musicians are fighting to quite literally fill the room. Grace says he saw this a lot in the '70s, when "loud guitars were commonplace," but the idea that louder is better may actually be a cultural phenomenon that transcends live music. Failing to do so can separate the novices from the professionals, as there's a difference between an enjoyable loud and so loud you feel compelled to stuff napkins in your ears (a true story, he says). Grace says a big part of staving off hearing loss is reading the room - specifically, the size of the venue. Jjwithers/Getty Images Reading the room (and adjusting the volume accordingly) However, if you're an avid concert-goer or musician, you may benefit from investing in a custom fitting by a hearing professional, for sound quality preservation but also to make sure they fit your ear perfectly. You can also get reusable plugs like these ones from EARasers. Products like these eartips or plugs from Westone are meant to be sold with filters that reduce different levels of noise, like 25 decibels or 10 decibels of attenuation, which you can slip in and out depending on how loud your environment is. But these devices can benefit anyone who wants to conserve the quality of sound but make it a little less loud.Īshby-Scabis says that some of the musician-grade ear plugs work to protect the "integrity" of the sound because they "take all of the sound and turn it down by a set amount," as opposed to classic foam ear plugs which muffle and quiet sound, but often at the expense of the fullness of the acoustics or sound of the music. "That's your livelihood, or your hobby or your passion."įor his musicians, he'd recommend brands like Starkey, which sells custom-made sound attenuators for musicians, or Westone, which also makes custom hearing protection.
"You just have to protect what you've got," Dechter explained.
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