This was me after the . stones Voodoo Lounge tour at the Rose Bowl… funny thing there ws like a 4 or 5 story building that were offices of some type on one side … when i mentioned to someone near me they said theyve been on the top floor and you still could hear the games and concerts through earthquake proof double payned windows
Meanwhile, the classical music industry struggles to attract audiences for live performances, despite having none of these issues at all.
I’m not sure where the need for cochlea-splitting music originated. Someone must want it, or think that someone wants it, because it seems to have become ubiquitous. I remember a time in my own life when loud music seemed “cool,” and bragging about enduring it seemed like a rite of youth passage. People would compare their lengths of ear-ringing episodes. “Yours rang for three days, well once mine rang for a week. Wow, what a show.” I used to understand that logic, but I don’t anymore.
Now I find music in restaurants, stores, and, most recently, at gas stations, just invasive and annoying. Turn it all off. I’ve forgotten the experience of silence. Not to mention the last concert I attended, and paid decent money to see, I felt the need to wear improvised earplugs (damp paper towels) through the entire show. It was awful.
My guess is that restaurants blaring music may be catering to the younger among us? Or at least a slice of the younger among us, who still find it “cool” to have their eardrums impacted while eating. And then, projecting onto the older crowd, they theorize that older people want to feel young, so they probably want an environment like the young want, so crank that age-defying music.
This is of course all speculation. But some reason for this situation must exist. And, like other such situations, it probably came about through twisted logic, small survery sample sizes, and assumptions.
Not only that, the music, even when played well, will be absolute dreck. The live music will be the most inane pap chosen not to entertain, but not to offend.
Except…
Yup. As far as the restaurant (though especially brew pub) owners are concerned, the loudness of the space is a feature, not a bug. Soundproofing is an expensive add-on to a bare bones warehouse building. Why pay for that just so your customers will eat and drink less, or lounge around longer while not buying more product?
It’s not clear to me how it’s being differentiated in the thread, but I very much like loud concerts from bands I know to be loud, but very much dislike loud music in passive settings (restaurants, bars, etc.).
Interestingly, we had a new restaurant open in the center of otown where people complained about the sound levels (on Facebook and apparently in person), and not only did they cut down on introduced sound, but they put some kind of noise-absorbing material on the walls. So, sometimes they will do something.
I’ve been to a few games in Mexico. They crank up the music between every pitch.