the "loudness" wars

My possible topic for my research paper will likely relate to music, or music industry. I don't know for sure just yet what subject matter it will pertain to, but I would like to do a study on the sorts of ways that music has changed (technically speaking, as well as how people have begun viewing music differently). I think one particularly interesting point of discussion would be the so called "loudness" wars which began in the mid to late 90's, when music (especially broadcast by radio) was a primary source of playtime and exposure for bands and artists. What happened was that bands found that by using certain tools in the production process (such as a "soft clipper", which is a special kind of compressor), they could essentially raise the overall "loudness" level of their tracks. (note that this does not mean volume, just "loudness", in terms of the average loudness of the entire track in decibels). Artists and producers found that by increasing the loudness of their tracks, they would sound more lively and "pumped up" when played over the radio, and people would then pay attention to them more. This would hold especially true if the song that came on before a "louder" song was significantly softer on the radio. Eventually (and to this very day), bands compete to make their songs louder and louder, even though radio play has taken a much more passive role in the lives of music and bands nowadays. The radio used to be able to break a new band into the music scene or help them make an insane amount of money, but now it is merely a tool used to play songs that are already popular over and over. One downside of the loudness wars is that dynamics in music have been completely lost, and this is one thing that bothers me a lot.