My paper #3 will most likely be an analysis and exposition of the "loudness wars", how it has grown over time since the early 80's, its affects and connections to radio, TV and the film industry, and the negative health effects of louder and louder music over the years.
http://www.sfxmachine.com/docs/loudnesswar/loudness_war.pdf
This scholarly article addresses specifically the subject matter that I wish to investigate. I will try to compare the two fields of health sciences and music industry by examining just how the loudness wars started, where it stands today, and what sorts of things it is causing.
For one, the louder music of our modern age has led to increased hearing loss in the younger generations. Along these same lines, music is meant to be "mobile" in our current time, and such inventions as the iPod and other portable MP3 players exemplify this "mobile" mentality. The idea with mobile music players is that you can listen to music anywhere, and use it to drown out the noise around you. Music which is "louder" on average throughout can be effective at drowning out ambient noise from the environment, but it also fatigues the ear drum and the sensitive ear bones, and in many cases can contribute to hearing degradation.
I will also try to examine the relationship between music loudness and its close counterpart, TV commercial loudness. Obama recently passed legislation (the CALM Act) which has placed more regulations on the volumes at which commercials can be broadcast. Excessively loud music and commercials are degrading hearing, making us less sensitive to nuanced musical devices, tiring out our eardrums and making all music sound the same.
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