Umm, cite? This subject has come up in the past and all the links provided seem to say that the damage is irreversible.
I have permanent hearing damage from standing next to huge speakers at a concert in the '70s. I should probably look into a hearing aid.
It ain’t worth it, kid. Turn the volume down.
More anecdotal evidence:
This kid John was never without his walkman, it was always turned up so loud others could hear it a block away, we called him “Johnny walkman” or “Walkman John”
Now the guy is damn-near deaf, no joke. You gotta YELL at him.
BTW, It doesn’t have to hurt to be doing damage.
I see people all the time—in their 20s, 30s, 40s—on the subway blasting their Walkmans into their earphones so loudly that I can hear it loud and clear half a car away. Sadly, that is what happens: you gradually go deafer without realizing it, and by the time you’re middle-aged, anything below a shout sounds like a whisper.
BTW, Walkman John was only in his early 20’s when he suffered from severe hearing loss. (as a direct result of prolonged loud walkman use)
Does listening to loud music impair hearing?
You bet it does. One time when I was a teenager, I was cranking AC/DC’s Let There Be Rock so loud I couldn’t hear my Dad coming in time to hide the bong…
Thank you all for the early warning, I appreciate it 
I listened to loud music all through my youth, not to mention the thousands of gunshot rounds. Then came DVDs and Home Entertainment systems. About two years after we got ours I began to notice a persistent ringing in my ears. I now have full blown Tinnitus. It’s tough to catch individual conversations in a crowd and my wife’s a little annoyed at how loud I have to turn up the TV.
Trust me, protect your hearing while you still can.
Just some anecdotal evidence corraborating Phu: I’ve been shooting at a public range (no monitors or restrictions on what you can shoot, so there are often guys with pretty heavy-duty hardware) and had something REALLY loud go off, causing a few minutes where I could notice that my hearing wasn’t all it was before. After a couple minutes, everything seemed normal again. And yes, I was wearing hearing protection, this stuff was just loud. The most notable example was when some guys blew up a keg.
Regarding the “Johnny Walkman” story, one of my friend’s cousins was listening to some headphones so loud he got the police called on him for a noise violation.
Well, this may very well be true, but limited exposure to loud noise is likely to cause temporary damage. The case in the OP and others that have been mentioned, Johnny Walkman, are about prolonged exposure over a long period of time.
Also, I don’t think that we are talking about total deafness here. Warning, lame example ahead.
The way that I understand this is that the normal hearing range runs from >_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ <. However, the long term exposure to loud noise can make your normal hearing range more along the lines of > x x _ _ _ _ _ x x x< where the x’s represent frequencies that your ears can no longer register. You may not be stone deaf, but you have lost some of your overall range, and it doesn’t come back. Again, I don’t know if this is correct, but this is how I understand how the problem manifests itself.
Actually musicians can also become deaf in certain frequency ranges. I work with plenty of 'em and a few get their hearing tested regularly. It’s common for rock band bass-players, for example, to lose the range of frequencies that match the cymballs because they usually stand right beside the drumkit (the drum and bass lines are often very closely related so they kind of have to play together.)
It’s not just rock and roll either. Musicians unions are looking into options for Noise-Induced Hearing Loss because orchestra members who rehearse a lot are suffering from cummulative hearing loss. As a result, some of the neat things that have come out of health and safety research are fancy earplugs that can lower volume without interfering too much with frequency (most earplugs will block out sound but also interfere with a musician’s ability to distinguish pitch, so it’s annoying.)
And yes, Fudge if you continue to blast the music very loudly into your ears, your hearing will continue to get worse and worse. The damage is irreversable. I know people who need hearing aids and they are only in their thirties.
Some hearing loss can be temporary – if you’ve ever come home after a night out dancing in a club and discovered after you’ve snuggled into bed that you hear a “buzzing” or “ringing” in your ears, then you’ve experienced the emporary hearing loss.
From the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders:
My ex once had a hearing test when the Ministry of Labor send over a crew to test employees at his plant. The night before, he had been at an AC/DC concert that had been held at an arena. His test results: “Legally deaf.”
His hearing did go back to normal within about 36 hours. The hearing tests for his plant had to be rescheduled because several of the guys had gone to the concert and couldn’t hear worth beans that day.
A temporary threshold shift is a neurological phenomenon, not an auditory one. It’s a different mechanism from the one that causes inner ear damage due to exposure of excessive SPL, and can occur well below the 85 dB limit for long-term exposure.
Question: Does that mean that the nerves that send the sound signal to your brain are a little overloaded? (As opposed to said killing the “vibro fur” inside your ear that receives the vibrations?)
“Vibro fur”! snort Sorry, that one made me laugh.
Basically, yes, although it’s in the brain itself, not the nerves leading from the inner ear. Your brain adjusts the upper and lower sensitivity thresholds to accomodate the ambient sound environment, so if it’s very quiet, the lower threshold drops so you can hear faint sounds; and if it’s loud, it raises the upper limit so it’s not as uncomfortable. The idea is to give your hearing as much dynamic range as possible under the current conditions. or something like that.
And, if your parents are right about this, you might reconsider some of the other things they are saying, too. They aren’t just out to ruin your fun.
Bob
But if you do actually have a hearing loss, get this, having a hearing aid is not the end of the world. I’ve had them since I was four, and I’m 16.
I use the behind-the-ear versions, but there are aids that are so small they fit in your ear and they literally do not look like they are there. They’re invisible.
(and no, it wasn’t loud music that did it to me)
I knew a talented and somewhat in-demand guitarist who had been in so many loud bands that he had developed tinnitus, which SUCKED. He insisted on rolling up the window in the car, and would run from loud vehicles like buses and motorcycles when walking down the street.
Turn it down.
Brain cramp, couldn’t remember the term. Is it “cilia?” – got as far as “cochlea” then my brain hemispheres said: “Okay, that’s enough Crayons. We’re tired, no more thinking for the day. You’ve reached your quota.”
At least I can still get the idea across.
Aside: I’ve worked in the performing arts and currently work with an indie record label – I carry a big box of earplugs in my trunk 'cause I often end up in LOUD environments.