# Fellow Brits. Why deafening music in pubs? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 12, 2005, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-brits-why-deafening-music-in-pubs/308005 "2005-06-12T21:12:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-brits-why-deafening-music-in-pubs/308005/1 "2005-06-12T21:12:45Z")
I don’t go out much, with good reason. I’ve been out a few times lately, once with some people from work, and a couple of times because of the TT. Every pub blasts music into the room. If there’s one thing I really hate doing it’s raising my voice above music. The loudness of this music though - my voice is physically incapable of reaching an audible level, even when shouting into someone’s ear. I don’t get it. The the thrill I get out of social drinking is the conversation, not the ear-pain. If making it to the age of 35 with my hearing intact means I have to be thought of as a sad git, then I am happy to be thought that way. ---
**Author:** ![TwistofFate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-brits-why-deafening-music-in-pubs/308005/2 "2005-06-12T21:18:14Z")
have you tried asking the barman to turn the music down a bit? ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-brits-why-deafening-music-in-pubs/308005/3 "2005-06-12T21:20:26Z")
> [@TwistofFate](#): > > have you tried asking the barman to turn the music down a bit? No, I prefer not to be a laughing stock. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-brits-why-deafening-music-in-pubs/308005/4 "2005-06-12T21:36:52Z")
God, I hate that. And no, in most cases there’s no chance of getting it turned down. My cynical mind has come up with various explanations: - Loud music means that people talk less. If they talk less, they drink more. If they drink more, they spend more. - With the ability to converse properly, many people would realise they didn’t actually want to spend any time with the company they’re with. - Landlords, and particularly mangement companies, have delusions of grandeur about being a place of ‘entertainment’, and not simply a meeting-place. ---
**Author:** ![bluecanary](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bluecanary/32/3614_2.png) [@bluecanary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bluecanary)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-brits-why-deafening-music-in-pubs/308005/5 "2005-06-12T22:12:44Z")
If it’s a ‘youth-oriented’ pub, on an evening, the first is almost certainly closest to the mark. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-brits-why-deafening-music-in-pubs/308005/6 "2005-06-12T22:22:36Z")
This horrible phenomenon has infected Australian pubs too. I’m not talking about “youth-oriented” pubs in the evening, but all pubs. Pubs full of old blokes studying the racing guide at 11am, will have thumping rap or dance music pumped through. And for some reason the old guys don’t complain. When I first started going to pubs, I didn’t dare even use the pinball machine before a certain time of the afternoon, because you’d odds-on get yelled at by some shaky old codger sitting at the bar staring into his beer. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-brits-why-deafening-music-in-pubs/308005/7 "2005-06-12T22:43:48Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > Every pub blasts music into the room. If there’s one thing I really hate doing it’s raising my voice above music. Round here, we have country pubs. Apart from a low murmur of conversation, the main excitement is if someone takes their false teeth out. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-brits-why-deafening-music-in-pubs/308005/8 "2005-06-12T22:57:36Z")
It’s not just in the UK: here, too, a lot of bars have bloody loud music. To me this makes no sense: there’s no dance floor, so the only thing you can do there that you can’t do at home with a two-four is talk – and you can’t talk! It drives me nuts; I have trouble hearing with background noise, so basically all I can do is shout the entire conversation. What’s the point? If I ran a bar, I’d play music very quietly. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-brits-why-deafening-music-in-pubs/308005/9 "2005-06-12T23:07:41Z")
> [@glee](#): > > Round here, we have country pubs. Apart from a low murmur of conversation, the main excitement is if someone takes their false teeth out. :eek: Is tha’ roit? Bloody ell, it’d be nice f’people round’ere cud’ford false teeth. ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-brits-why-deafening-music-in-pubs/308005/10 "2005-06-13T02:29:02Z")
I agree that pubs with loud music are terrible, but I do think it’s not too hard to pick the ones that deliberately _don’t_ have it. Or, if they have music sometimes, it’s a deliberate thing - folk or blues or something from a group of real people, as opposed to having some canned music on almost by default. That is, music that a lot of the patrons have deliberately chosen to come and hear. The nearest pub to me IS the evil loud canned music or jukebox type, but, well. it is a trashy place, in that case. ---
**Author:** ![sewalk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@sewalk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sewalk)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-brits-why-deafening-music-in-pubs/308005/11 "2005-06-13T03:24:50Z")
It’s probably our fault. You can’t hardly find a decent bar in the States that doesn’t have too-loud music. Blame American pop culture. I do. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Doris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@Sir\_Doris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Doris)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-brits-why-deafening-music-in-pubs/308005/12 "2005-06-13T08:26:34Z")
It’s to get people to drink more. Along with forcing customers to stand, it’s known as mass volume vertical drinking. Folk drink faster when standing and drink more when they can’t have a conversation. Just persuade 'em to drink stuff that doesn’t even taste alchoholic from little bottles, and rake in the profits. Sadly where I live there is very little choice, of an evening. There are very few pubs in the town centre, they are mostly bars, which are guaranteed to pumping out loud music. Of the very few pubs left, several of these undergo a transformation in the evening, beoming some sort of hybrid in that they have seats and a better range of drinks, but you still can’t converse without shouting directly into someone’s ear. ---
**Author:** ![One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/838e76/32.png) [@One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/One_And_Only_Wanderers)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-brits-why-deafening-music-in-pubs/308005/13 "2005-06-13T08:28:27Z")
Any Sam Smiths pubs in your area **Lobsang**? No music at all in those, not even a juke box. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-brits-why-deafening-music-in-pubs/308005/14 "2005-06-13T12:05:07Z")
I’ve always hated loud music in bars, especially early in the evening. The 5-8 pm time frame is when you have a lot of after work people stopping in. They generally are interested in talking and don’t want loud music. The jukebox in a bar is a money machine, however. It just doesn’t need to be on at full blast. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-brits-why-deafening-music-in-pubs/308005/15 "2005-06-13T13:34:50Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > Is tha’ roit? Bloody ell, it’d be nice f’people round’ere cud’ford false teeth. Baah gum, lad! It’s reet great to meet a fellow chap from t’country. Aye, we’ve got some dosh - but we don’t hold with t’newfangled inventions. (Sound of crazy frog theme) :eek: 'Scuse me, just got to answer that… :o ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-brits-why-deafening-music-in-pubs/308005/16 "2005-06-13T14:12:50Z")
Here’s a [book](http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1854108352/qid=1118672602/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_11_2/026-9606407-6832402) you might like to read ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-brits-why-deafening-music-in-pubs/308005/17 "2005-06-13T16:21:34Z")
> [@Sir Doris](#): > > It’s to get people to drink more. Along with forcing customers to stand, it’s known as mass volume vertical drinking. Folk drink faster when standing and drink more when they can’t have a conversation. > Just persuade 'em to drink stuff that doesn’t even taste alchoholic from little bottles, and rake in the profits. Now what I could never get is why people go. My friends and I go drinking all the time. But one thing I could never stand is waiting 45 minutes in line to drink in a bar where I can’t move, can’t hear myself talk and can’t even get to the bar. Most people go to a bar or club to do the following: -Drink -Socialize -Dance -Pick up people What’s the appeal of a bar so crowded that you can’t do any of that? ---
**Author:** ![Studs\_Murphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/858c86/32.png) [@Studs\_Murphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Studs_Murphy)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-brits-why-deafening-music-in-pubs/308005/18 "2005-06-13T18:40:35Z")
Lobsang, did you know that Wetherspoon’s pubs have no music? There is a very good reason for loud music - most people have very little to say worth hearing - especially students. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-brits-why-deafening-music-in-pubs/308005/19 "2005-06-13T19:28:26Z")
If I enter a pub with loud music, I walk straight back out.