The Loudness War: Does recorded music keep getting louder?
Have you ever noticed when you’re listening to albums that the volume seems to keep going up? Don’t worry, it’s not your hearing going down the drain; it’s just the loudness war.
To the average listener, the technical whys and wherefores of sonic production can somewhat get lost in translation, often going over heads in pursuit of the desired effect of a song as a whole. Of course, this sleight of hand has always been the goal, but when its inner workings become tangible, and the music becomes louder and louder, it’s hard to miss.
It may not be the nicest thing to hear, but the theory goes that audiences should be deafened into submission to enjoy music. Well, that admittedly might be a bit of a harsh way to put it, but the essential genesis of the notion is the same. If you reduce the precise fidelity and increase the volume, people are bound to come running.
Of course, as with most things in life, it then got taken too far. When some bright spark realised this phenomenon and spread it around the music industry, the cannon was fired on the start of the so-called loudness war, meaning the volume kept going up, and up, and up some more. That’s all well and good until your ears start to bleed.
Traces of the love for loudness could be found all the way as far back as the 1940s on seven-inch vinyls, but the whole competition really only kicked into gear from the late ‘80s and ‘90s onwards, when the use of CDs became the mode of choice. There, the enhancement of digital technologies was the limitless chalice.
It probably goes without saying, however, that things soon began to spiral out of control. Granted, we might all love Oasis’s (What’s the Story) Morning Glory for the fact that it could wake the dead, but it was one of the loudest albums ever seen at the time and truly pushed the boundaries of what the increase in volume could achieve.
The thing to note, though, is that volume comes at a cost. Take the famous example of Metallica’s Death Magnetic album from 2008, which was so loud that the sound on the CD became completely distorted at points. As it turns out, that fidelity doesn’t stand for absolutely nothing.
As the streaming age crept into the fore, and while it has its own many idiosyncrasies, one benefit that did appear was the fact that the overlords stepped in to put an end to the volume nonsense and set out some ground rules. No matter your service of choice, each one will have a set maximum amplification it goes to, and after that, songs are getting pushed back down into place.
So as it turns out, the old Spinal Tap adage of “Turn it up to 11” doesn’t necessarily translate to this day and age, if 11 exceeds the maximum capacity of the volume you’re allowed. The loudness war may have been stopped in its tracks and thus seemingly putting an end to all the fun, but is it not true that the one integral thing you need to enjoy music is the ability to hear it?
