Is it me, or are there specific genres of music blasted at annoying volumes? What I mean is that when I’m driving or walking on the sidewalk, I don’t hear some car cruising by playing Fugue in F minor by Bach; its generally one of the following genres: Rap, or Latin (Banda, to be specific).
Is it just conformation bias, or does it seem like its only particular genres of music that people choose to play at very high volumes? While heavy metal gets the stereotype for being played at annoying levels, I actually rarely hear it. My job has me on the road all day, so I will frequently hear the radios of cars next to me, and it is rare to hear metal or country music blasting out of some other car. This could be regional- I live in the Bay Area in California. I can imagine that country music would be more prevalent in the midwest.
I actually wouldn’t mind hearing something different. I’ll admit I’m biased based on my own personal tastes. For instance, lots of people listen to music on the bus. The annoying thing is that even though they have earbuds, they are listening to music so loud I can hear it, 60 feet away, coming out of tiny little speakers jammed in their ears :rolleyes: . I wouldn’t mind if it was music I like (and I have pretty broad tastes) but it always ends up being some annoying bass track or something.
Last year my family went camping, and my wife and I hung out with them for a day. The folks at the neighboring campground were blasting some spanish music (which my wife loves, being Latina and all). My uncle openly complained about the music, and said it was kind of rude to blast music so loud. Later, my wife told me she was offended my uncle would have a problem with it. She assumed because it was in Spanish, and my uncle couldn’t understand Spanish, was the reason he complained. I had to explain to her it was the volume that the music was set at that bothered him. But then it occurred to me-
Different cultures “party” differently. Some cultures are low key. For people that are low key, loud music, late parties, etc are annoying. For cultures that have loud, late parties, not having loud music at odd hours of the night would be a buzzkill. I really wonder if there’s something cultural going on here, since I know that some cultures/genres are enjoyed privately or at reasonable times/decibels, while other cultres/genres seem to just want to go cray-cray with the noise and partying
I recall being told by a cop that at least in Tucson mariachi and rap were by far the two genres most associated with vehicle noise citations (electronic/club music was the most common for apartments and houses).
That said, once on a lark I drove around blasting Chopin. It really confused people. Yes, I’m a little ashamed since I intentionally did it to see what reactions I’d get.
I hate any music blasting. And yes, it’s usually a genre of music that I don’t like, I find.
What the young people are up to these days is playing music on the bus WITHOUT headphones. It drives me nuts. It’s illegal, but they invariably get away with it.
I like to listen to classical music at concert volume. On my way home from work on Sunday nights, I listen to Pipe Dreams (pipe organ music). I keep cranking the volume up until my car shakes from the bass. If I don’t remember to turn down the volume when I get home, I get blasted into the back seat when I start the car in the morning.
He was blasting his rap so I cranked up my Led Zeppelin.
He went louder, so did I.
He started shouting at me and shaking his fist, I told him when he turned his shit down I’d turn mine down otherwise he could f 'off.
Not my fault I have better speakers.
Blasting stereos annoy me but when my son was little it was the lyrics that bothered me.
Once I pulled up next to a cat and the lyrics were next thing I know she was sucking my dick
I really didn’t want my 5 year old asking me what that meant.
Here is a semi related article about new advances researchers have made in discovering more precisely how listening to music gives the listener pleasure / releases dopamine.
Just a few WAGs, but maybe:
1.) Certain types of people (I.e. pleasure seekers, young men, status/women seekers, people who don’t care if it bothers you or more likely WANT you to hear ) who would play music loud are more likely to listen to certain genres of music.
2.) Perhaps certain types of music cause the release of more dopamine when they are blasted.
3.) The listeners want to let you know how cool they are by virtue of the super cool music they listen to .
4.) They need something to blast from that new sub woofer.
TL:DR - Blasting music gets them "high " and they want you to know how cool they are. This means young guys and whatever types of music they consider cool ( rock / rap ).
I was somewhat amused recently by the fancy pimped out car with the funky paintjob and big shiny rims blasting out some Middle Eastern music that sounded straight out of some old black and white spy movie that involved a chase scene on camels through a bazaar.
It was still really annoying but at least a change from the usual bass vibrations that precede the car for blocks.
I blast NPR in my car because I drive with the windows down on the freeway (lots of freeways in Houston to get around from one point to another in the city), and then when I get off the freeway I typically forget to turn the volume down.
I suspect it’s largely cultural but partly individual as well. Surely there must be Latina/os who are introverted, highly-sensitive, quiet-loving people, but it doesn’t sound like your wife is one of them.
I would assume more aggressive and party-oriented music like rap, electronica, rock, country and some pop music tends to get blasted at loud volumes more than other types of music. And I’m sure it varies by region.
I’m not sure if kids do this anymore, but in the 90s, a lot of people put high powered amps and subwoofers in their (often shitboxy) cars. These tended to be the sort of kids who listened to rap or nu-metal or dance/house/electronic music. ie black kids, wanabee black kids and guidos.
