Loudness Wars for the Common Listener to understand?
For those that don’t think the quality of music has suffered since the late 80s onward, it has. If you can take a CD (original) from the late 70s like Led Zeppelin and pick the toughest, meanest track you can find. Listen to it in your car or home stereo at whatever volume you find satisfying. Listen to the instruments how they relate to each other to “your ears”. Then pull out a recent contemporary track, (Justin Beiber, Lady Gaga, Filter, or Kate Perry) and play it at that “same” volume. What do your ears tell you about the full musical experience as noted above? Do things seem to have a natural, organic crescendo (growing of sound) versus a diminuendo (getting smaller, diminishing) of sound within the context of the song. It’s a worthy experiment and the studios only generate what they think people want to buy or steal for that matter. A good example is a well know band/artist approaching this issue Trent Reznor Fights The Loudness Wars, Offers ‘Loud’ & ‘Audiophile’ Masters Of Hesitation Marks