When i was a Junior in high school, i spent a good majority of the winter and spring touring the east coast with a group of 20 other kids my age, playing classic rock concerts everywhere we went. When i first got on stage, with amplifiers stacked behind me turned up to the highest volume and a drum set with microphones in or around every drum or cymbal, the loudness or intensity of the sound was a little overwhelming. I mostly sang when i was on stage, and it can be difficult to hear yourself when so much other noise is around you. The first time i performed on stage, i was blown away by the other instruments and i couldn’t stay in the right key or sing the right pitch. My ears became desensitized over time, and i adapted to be able to control my voice despite the roaring guitars and ground-shaking drums
In February of 2009, we went on stage with Napolean Murphy Brock, whom most of you are probably unfamiliar with. He played jazz flute and the saxophone for Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, a progressive rock band. He was an experienced musician, and i sought to learn from him while performing together. At the first show we played together, i noticed he was wearing earplugs, and asked how he could handle dulling the band’s sound so much to his own ears while still putting on a good show. He told me if i didn’t where ear plugs, i would be deaf in 20 years of putting on loud concerts. Phil collins is a famous musician who thrived in the 70s and 80s, and put on shows until he was almost 60-years-old. In 2011, he announced he would never again be performing on stage, because he could go completely deaf if he suffers any more hearing damage.
I spoke to my father, who was a music guru as a young adult, and he told me about how he has a constant ringing in his left ear that never goes away. He went to a performance by The Who in 1979, who were widely renowned for how loud their shows were, and was standing in the second row, on the far left side, directly next to a giant speaker. He said the ringing started after that show, and he has had hearing problems ever since. I first noticed my father’s hearing impairment when i was boiling water in a tea kettle, and walked outside onto my deck to shovel snow. I heard the tea kettle whistle, and ignored it because i figured my father would remove it from the hot stove for me. After a couple minutes, the whistling did not end, and i walked inside to see my dad watching sports in the same room as the stove. I asked him if he could hear ‘that’, and he replied, ‘hear what?’ The pitch at which the tea kettle whistled was the same as the ringing in his ear that does not go away. I was astounded that he could not hear the piercing sound, and promised myself i would never let my hearing get that bad.
I began to wear earplug whenever i performed, and despite not getting the full effect of hearing each song we played, it did not impair my ability to sing, and more importantly did not damage my hearing. In class we discussed the poor hearing of our generation, mainly attributed to the widespread use of ear buds, but loud shows can have the same detrimental effect on one’s hearing. Whether you are on stage or in the crowd watching, it is very important to wear earplugs during the louder performances, because it reduces the impact of soundwaves entering the ear and prevents damage to the Stereocilia within the inner ear which are very precious. Stereocilia cannot be regenerated, and excessively loud noises will destroy them.
Take good care of your ears, because your hearing becomes worse each and every time your stereocilia are damaged or destroyed. Neil young, Pete Townshend of The Who, Eric Clapton, and Jeff Beck of The Rolling Stones, all have permanent damage to their hearing, and will tell you time and time again that they wish they had worn earplugs on stage.
I think this is an interesting post! And I can definitely relate to this. I also remember when I listen to music loudly with headphones, I have trouble understanding what people say, and what I say so I tend to speak way more louder without being aware of it when I’m wearing headphones. After learning that listening to loud music will cause permanent damage to our ears, I am now more aware of the music volume when wearing headphones, and constantly remind myself that I should lower the volume a bit when I want to listen to loud music. The story of your father makes me feel like I should take more consideration in how I should be more mindful of my habit of listening to audios so I would not have a hearing problem too early.
When I was in high school I also spent a majority of my time going to rock concerts. Rock is my favorite type of music and their was a park around the corner from my house that always hosted live music. I was never in a band, so I’m sure I wasn’t as close as you or any of the people you mentioned, but I did love rock music so I would get as close to it as I possibly could.
After reading this and finding out that many talented musicians have permanent ear damage due to the fact that they were around loud music too often I think I will reconsider getting so close to the front at concerts. I haven’t noticed any ear damage to myself yet, and I am not going to concerts as often as I once was, so I probably won’t go to the extent of wearing earplugs, but I will be more careful about how loud I listen to my music or how close I get. Thank you for your post.
Your post was extremely engaging, i guess you can tell by the previous 7 comments. I enjoyed your story and background information for your point. I myself have only been to 4 concerts in my life and i keep them far apart for those reasons. I have a sensitivity to loud sounds and i enjoy my hearing very much. My sister blasted music around the house for years and to this day she is hard of hearing (though my father would say thats always been her nature). Realizing how much of an impact our music has on our hearing is scary. I enjoy blasting my favorite songs walking to class, in my car and in my room. Your fathers story makes me want to take into consideration how often i do that and be more mindful of my hearing in the future. I would rather not have a hearing problem by the time i’m in my 40’s.
After reading this blog post and analyzing it I realized from my experience as a crowd spectator at many shows I realized the hearing issues and tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, that I often get likely resulted from this. Being in the crowd I could not imagine the intensity of the loud noises coming from the plethora of instruments and enormous speakers. After what we learned in class about how fragile our ears and hearing are I realized that it is very important to keep music volumes at a stable level as the damage done to our Stereocilia is permanent and irreversible, and hearing and sight are the most important senses; in my personal opinion at least. This blog post along with our information from class made me realize that I need to start using more caution when attending shows and listening to my music with my ear buds in.
I think your post was very relatable. I have noticed that over time when I have listened to music on my phone, I have had to gradually make the sound on my phone louder and louder. After learning about the auditory system, I wonder if turning up the volume on my headphones has damaged my hearing in any way. Your post enlightened me because I did not know that you could still lose hearing even if you are just in the crowd watching. I think that just like you said, the moral to take away here is that we should take care of our ears. Our grandparents should not be able to hear better than us as Dr. Wede mentioned that some could in a study conducted. We have to be careful with the volumes that we subject our ears to.
I am not a fun of rock music, but I do know Rock music is so loud. Sometimes, I hear a rock concert when passing by. I can not hear what the singer is singing at all. The music is just so loud, that is why I do not like rock. Today, from your blog post, I hear the voice from a rock performer. Now I know even the singer can not hear what they are sing and can not keep up with the right note. For the worst part is the hearing loss. The damage to singer is worse than the audience. So I probably not go to rock concert.
I can definitely relate to this post about hearing and desensitizing it. I had a recent experience which made it clear how sensitive the ears can be to high sounds. I was in Barcelona, and I went to a club where the music was very loud. No one could hear anything anyone was saying, causing everyone to yell in eachother’s ears. I had one person screaming in my ear for a good ten minutes before I told him to forget it. After being there for hours, my ears were subjected to such loud sounds, which actually caused a change in my hearing. Of course, my hearing eventually went back to normal. But, waking up the next day with a ringing in my ears, lasting all day, was pretty scary. All sounds were muffled a little, and the ringing was driving me insane. It is important to protect your ears from prolonged high pitch sounds, because damage can be done, and permanently, if strong enough.
I really enjoyed reading your post about hearing loss, because this is prevalent problem in today’s society. Many kids and young adults listen to their iPods too loud. It is really bad on your ears, because the hair cells are dying faster than normal. Hair cells die as people age, which explains why elderly people often wear hearing aids and have trouble with hearing. However, with extreme noise going through the ear, the hair cells will die much faster. I think that people who are in a noisy area frequently need to wear ear protection, such as ear plugs. For example, if your occupation involves being around a loud environment, such as a singer or a construction work, protective ear wear is something extremely important. Now that we have high tech headphones from companies such as Beats, we often turn them up loud to hear the full range of the sound. I also often go to the concerts and feel a ringing sensation when I lay in bed, because the concert was so loud. Going to loud concerts now and then is ok, but if you are exposed to this stimulus too often, it is unhealthy for your ears. Young adults are more common to listen to music loudly and go to concerts, so this is something we should be most aware of.
Over the past few years I have attended many concerts such as the Firefly Music Festival and immediately after the show I would notice that my ears would be ringing and that I have started to listen to music a little bit louder because I like the feeling of being completely immersed in it. But now that my hearing has started to decline a little bit i am much more wary about being near the stage at concerts or how loud my headphones are. I wonder how much damage a whole weekend of festival music does to one’s ears by being constantly bombarded by such loud sounds for three straight days. I also find it a little ironic that these famous musicians who have such a deep love for their music have lost the ability to truly experience it.
I completely agree with you as far as wearing ear plugs at loud events. Or at least backing away from the noise. I grew up hunting which meant we would use guns, and as I got older I would start going to concerts. I ended up getting my ears checked while applying to colleges (Naval Academy) and found out that my hearing was below where it needed to be. This was shocking to me because I thought everything was fine. Since then I have always brought ear plugs with me to loud events because I don’t want to be borderline def at an early age.