Everything Louder Than Everything Else
You know when you're young, and parents etc say "Turn it down it's just noise..." and you wince because they are just...old...and don't understand.
In my mid teens I read some article that said as part of the aging process we become less able to tolerate extremes of volume, in music and elsewhere. Being that I've always liked loud music I vowed it would never happen to me. But in the past ten years or so I have become increasingly indifferent to modern pop music, feeling that there is an absence of subtlety.
Actually, one thing has bugged me since I was a small child - the significant difference in volume between pop and classical. This has really come to a head since I acquired and loaded an mp3 player which I keep more or less constantly on shuffle, and find that I am constantly having to make volume adjustments, especially on public transport.
Turns out that it might not be simply a product of my aging process but it is a fact that over the past ten years, the pop/rock music industry has deliberately eliminated variations in dynamic range in order to achieve maximum loudness.
For those already confused, Montrone was essentially saying that there are millions of copies of CDs being released that are physically exhausting listeners, most of whom probably don't know why their ears and brains are feeling worn out... ...But something weird happens as you listen to it. You like the songs, but you don't really want to listen to it for very long and you're not entirely sure why. You take it off. A few minutes, later you put it back on. Same thing happens: You like the music, but you still want to take the CD off. It's more than a little weird. Condolences. You are officially a casualty of the loudness wars, the ongoing competition among bands, labels and A&R folks to make ever-louder albums.
Being a 'loud' fan, I especially appreciate dynamic contrast...one of my most favourite contrasts is in Haydn's Creation, when the chorus sings "And God said...Let.there.be.li-i-i-i-i-ght" and suddenly this amazing cacophony breaks out from the orchestra - if I was in charge of a performance I'd have the stage in near-total darkness until that point, then flood it with light.
