Not A Clue.

for starters, I've had T for 40 years after my ears were blown to bits by loud music.
I'm interested in opinions.
Just thinking tonight...
- When did all kinds of non-rock music (at concerts) start to reach the 'rock' level?
- Why, of all places, did churches start to ''crank it up?"
- Why hasn't anyone bitched about enclosed "band rooms" with full drum line and 30 horns?
- Why do people (me included) even get close to loud music after what it's done to them?
- When will there be health warnings at theaters, concerts, etc....

 

I would add the stupid 'loudness war' in the whole music industry to this list. From an audiophile point of view this is horrible and stupid.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

 

Doctors are blamed for many things on this board (rightly or wrongly). I would myself not put the blame on doctors for not being able to come up with a cure (that's not really their job). But, I would certainly put the blame on elected health officials and doctors for not doing more to warn people about noise safety levels - and enforcing safety levels. If free condoms can be handed out at rock festivals, then why can't free earplugs be handed out too?

I am Danish, but I live in Germany - arguably one of the most structurally and financially advanced nations on Earth. Yet, whenever I walk through the streets of Leipzig - where lots of construction is always taking place - I frequently see workers going about their jobs without any form of hearing protection. And we live in 2014...

 

The Youth likes extreme things. Our culture sees youth culture as the leading culture. Thats why we need to buy good clothes (even if your older) and you buy creames to look younger. Everybody want to be young. A lot of times churches or other places try to follow this culture as well.

 

Because it draws your attention to the experience. When 5.1 sound came up, I saw a demo at the mall. They were playing Cliffhanger (1993) so loud I could feel my internal organs vibrating. Awesome!

I had a friend whose ears ring after concerts. I tried to warn her but she won't listen. I don't know how to tell her.

 

People love a visceral impact; sounds get an emotional tag from our limbic system. Maybe that is why so many people relentlessly hold to a belief that if they say something really loud, or 500 times in a row, it's MORE true (just my observation/impression). So, even if they did put out warnings I'm sure people would view them as an impediment to their visceral needs.

 

I agree with this thread as volume levels at just about any "public sound event" (concerts, movies, theater, dance, idiots with big speakers in their cars, racetracks, whatever...) are literally insane.
The other thing that is insane, is that I hear people complain about it a lot...Mostly older people of course, but even 30-somethings. The latter however often just say: "Oh I put earplugs in and it's not too bad!" I'm talking movies here, not clubs or discos even. The question then is: WHY SHOULD EARPLUGS BE NECESSARY IN THE FIRST PLACE???!!! I mean this is meant to be a pleasurable experience, yet you have to protect yourself. It's nuts.

But yeah, we as a society have not evolved yet to the place where it becomes publicly acceptable to complain about sound levels and not be looked at as an alien. Let alone where decibel levels are subject to regulation or control. Like most things it will take "pain" (lots of hearing damage) before that happens.

Doctors, and especially ENT's and Audiologists are just not being forceful enough about this. If I was one I would be hassling Oprah, or some other guru TV show host, until they agreed to air a section about it with gory details, and interviews with a few severe tinnitus/hyperacusis folks to say what life is like after the damage is done.
Likewise the national Tinnitus/Audiology associations could be doing more to rattle the cage and get the word out. People pay a little more attention to 'organizations' than some individual (like me), and they can use that to advantage.

In the end...it will be "pain" (damage/suffering) that will change anything, as for sure our evolutionary hearing physiology is not going to move fast enough to adapt to the speed of volume increases we have experienced in what...The Who? Led Zeppelin? Woodstock? Wherever the volume started to get cranked up. What's that 35 years or so? A mere nanosecond on the evolutionary time-line.

Good luck "young 'uns", but then if you are reading this you are already in the "damaged" camp most likely. Sorry about that.

Best, Zimichael

 

I remember, in the late 60's, it seemed only rock music was 'loud.' Ya, that made it exciting and dangerous. Everytime there was a band at an after-game Friday dance, they were always on the verge of getting kicked out for being loud, thus shutting down the dance. I remember some guys in bands (late 60's, early 70's) wore wigs because I guess they had respectable jobs during the week. haha Back then, churches didn't have P.A. systems, country bands were not loud, polka bands often were not electric at all, except for the bass guitar.
I doesn't look good for the young people nowadays, being raised on loud everything.

 

It really does suck avoiding church because of the loud sounds they produce these days.. If there was no such thing as T and that hearing loss was the only thing we had to worry about then it wouldnt be as bad. In reality it would be opposite.. To much silence but idc T is worse.

 

Why does my 14 year old daughter not even heed my warnings even though she watches me suffer with t and bad h?! Because people only care once it happens to them! I was once one of those blast your music as loud as you can so I could "feel" it more...my only worry then or knowledge was I may lose some hearing down the line, but hey, doesn't everyone? ! :/ never knew hyperacusis existed and T, well that too only happens to "old people" ignorance...