The opportunity
Seattle Councilmember Dan Strauss is worried about Seattle’s ears.
Earlier this spring, he drafted a “hearing protection ordinance” that would require music venues to provide hearing protection for free or less than $1, or risk fines.
“This bill is about making sure that people have the opportunity to both enjoy Seattle’s vibrant music scene and protect their hearing health no matter where they go,” Strauss said when presenting the idea to his colleagues in March.
Well…that’s like going swimming with the sharks while taking a box of bandaids with you. It’s like going to an all-you-can-eat restaurant with a bottle of diet pills in your pocket. It’s like setting your house on fire and then putting on asbestos socks.
In short, why would you go to a concert that you know will be too loud? Why not select concerts that are not too loud, instead? Think of the fortune you would save on ear plugs.
I don’t “do” rock concerts, but I have been to other kinds of performances that I knew beforehand were going to be louder than was comfortable for me, and I took steps to mitigate¹ the problem. Not going would mean missing that particular show, which I did not want to do. There was no option of hearing that same show at a lower volume.
Musicians who play in ensembles that often play loud music do sometimes wear earplugs. It’s an occupational hazard. Many brass players, or people who sit near the brass section in orchestras, use earplugs of some sort; there are earplugs marketed to musicians for that purpose. I imagine that many of the musicians onstage in these extremely loud rock concerts are themselves wearing such earplugs.
¹ I wear hearing aids these days, so mitigation involves turning down the volume on the hearing aids.
Ah. That makes sense.
It makes sense that musicians might wear ear defenders but I’m not so sure about the audience. Plugging the ears doesn’t just turn down the volume, it muffles the sound and blocks the higher-frequency notes, so things sound similar to how they do if your head is underwater. I can’t imagine that live music fans will see the point in going to venues if they aren’t going to hear what the bands are playing.
They should provide the earplugs for those living in the vicinity who didn’t have any desire to go to the concert, and might like to get some sleep. ;-)
There are more sophisticated earplugs that are better at getting full spectrum sound. They are, of course, more expensive. Providing them for free or for a dollar to an audience of hundreds is unlikely to happen. (A quick search turns up $30-$50 per pair for the good ones, versus 25 cents per pair for the cheapest ones.)
Seems like a reasonable ordinance… They’re cheap kit and it’s the only way not to destroy your hearing at a metal concert.
Should probably get some of the expensive ones before I go again.
I get asked about appropriate noise levels in bars and performance venues fairly often as part of my profession. It’s a bug bear for me that many venue owners and music promoters (mostly older guys) insist that the sound level has to be super high to be good. Most people simply don’t want it that loud. There is a case for rock to be played reasonably loud. Loud music triggers a sensory response similar to the sense of acceleration. It still doesn’t need to be stupidly loud and it’s routine to see people turning up to concerts with hearing protection now.
I’ve done trials with bar owners. ‘How loud do you want it?’ Oh, it’s got to be at least 105dB! ‘Ok. Turn the music up till you think it’s right.’ [music gets turned up] ‘Right, that’s 85dB.’ Oh no, it’s got to be 105dB!
The sound volume definitely bothers me more than it used to do (or maybe I’m just more willing to admit it than back in my metalhead days). I mostly go to jazz/fusion concerts these days, and they’re usually ok. I still go to some rock/metal-style shows, however, and there have definitely been times when I couldn’t make out the individual notes through the impenetrable wall of noise. Kind of takes away the whole point.