Why do old people complain about loud music...

bluechargeboy

For me at 43 it is down to an increased sense of one's mortality and the need to protect your only body! Nowadays when I have to endure LOUD music that makes my ears numb, that just tells me that my ears are defending themselves against damage. I would like to play and enjoy music for the next 60 years or so, I need my ears! Turn it down, you bloody whippersnapppers!

joeyowen

Why do old people drive at 1mph, yet try to achieve land speed records on a mobility scooter? 

Winny_Pooh

joeyowen said:

Why do old people drive at 1mph, yet try to achieve land speed records on a mobility scooter? 

To speak for myself: logically, if I had to use a mobility scooter I'd have a death wish.

Rocker

The term Loud is usually referring to amplified music at a wedding or occasion. Most older people do not attend gigs. Alsi it is often used to describe wedding/function bands who make no attempt to play some music that older people might like or dance to.  Loud as most bands know it, is very distorted whereas a concert grand is loud but clean loud. It is often much louder than a drummer, yet it does not sound loud. Or loud as younger people know it.

Aidanspaghetti

I was at a wedding late december and the band were Hatchett loud.
Really quite a miserable experience - and I aint Old old yet.
Stupid really....

rlw

Define "old people" too.  Does 64 count?

Cirrus

If we're talking about the context of pubs, bars, clubs, social occasions...

When you're young you spend loads of time with your friends and you've got fuck all to say to each other of consequence, so music too loud to converse over is a nice excuse to just dance/ be silly/ bite each other/ whatever the hell kids do today.

When you're old you're probably trying to get to know someone, catch up with a great friend you've not seen in ages, and the music is fucking shit anyway so it's an annoyance you could do without.

For me, the Young/Old threshold was at about 24 years old.

koneguitarist

From a musician point of view a lot of us "oldies" 50's plus played in loud bands without monitors. Always struggling to hear yourself and at the time, no problem with volume in venues. 
Also the sound was quite bad years ago with 100w PA's for vocals yet 50-100w valve amps for guitars cranked! 
Now there is no excuse to playing really loud with a bad sound, loud and clean is not as bad as loudish distorted! 

digitalscream

Cirrus said:

If we're talking about the context of pubs, bars, clubs, social occasions...

When you're young you spend loads of time with your friends and you've got fuck all to say to each other of consequence, so music too loud to converse over is a nice excuse to just dance/ be silly/ bite each other/ whatever the hell kids do today.

When you're old you're probably trying to get to know someone, catch up with a great friend you've not seen in ages, and the music is fucking shit anyway so it's an annoyance you could do without.

For me, the Young/Old threshold was at about 24 years old.

Is this a good time to mention that I've never actually liked gigs or very loud music?

Emp_Fab

What's the point of it being louder than the level needed to hear it clearly and also convey a sense of energy and power ?  Once you go past that level, it just becomes fucking annoying and onwards towards painful and dangerous.

thecolourbox

digitalscream said:

thecolourbox said:

monquixote said:

I think it's because they also loose the ability to pick out sounds when it's loud so it's harder for them to hear what people are saying when it's loud.

Absolutely this. My hearing is fine (and I'm only twentysomething) but I cannot hear a single word people say in some of the bars in Birmingham that are converted old bank buildings because the sound just rumbles around and seemingly I'm fairly sensitive to background noise!

If it helps, I believe it's also a sign of being somewhere north of "normal" on the autism spectrum...and a symptom of tinnitus.

Lol thank you @digitalscream that is a great comfort

digitalscream

I wouldn't worry about it too much...I'm a "very-probably" on one of those and a "definitely" on the other

thecolourbox

digitalscream said:

I wouldn't worry about it too much...I'm a "very-probably" on one of those and a "definitely" on the other

Beg pardon? Speak up young man

Edit, I definitely have no tinnitus, I'm presumably also a "very probably" on the other but I'd never have thought it had anything to do with my lack of near field hearing in background noise environments!

Jalapeno

Older you get, the more mid-range hearing goes - more so with blokes.  So they're going deaf and can't hear 'cos of the racket. Simples !

Nitefly

Because we can.

viz

boogieman said:

MagicPigDetective said:

digitalscream said:

thecolourbox said:

monquixote said:

I think it's because they also loose the ability to pick out sounds when it's loud so it's harder for them to hear what people are saying when it's loud.

Absolutely this. My hearing is fine (and I'm only twentysomething) but I cannot hear a single word people say in some of the bars in Birmingham that are converted old bank buildings because the sound just rumbles around and seemingly I'm fairly sensitive to background noise!

If it helps, I believe it's also a sign of being somewhere north of "normal" on the autism spectrum...and a symptom of tinnitus.

Wow interesting, this exactly describes my experience in noisy pubs, cant hear a word thats being said, never ocurred to me it could be a 'thing'. Perhaps its related to my mild synesthesia ..... 

I'm the same. If I'm in a restaurant with my wife I can usually hear the people on the table behind me, rather than what she's trying to say to me. Really annoying, for both of us. I've got quite bad tinnitus in one ear. 

Yes it's very possibly that you have poor hearing in one ear. I have 100% single sided deafness and can't hear a sausage in noisy rooms. People should try it - just block one ear in a noisy pub and see what an immediate difference it makes. 

pintspiller

To be honest. If I don't like the music played, I will complain more if it's loud than vise versa.

chromatuna

Like @Emp_Fab says above but also because too loud often equates to loss of clarity and subtlety, qualities which at 56 I value highly in music. Of course when I was in my teens and seeing Motörhead, Sabbath and so on I felt a little differently although I have to say apart from one of the last club gigs by the former I never found live music in big venues to be that loud, club / venue gigs with cloth eared sound engineers are usually the worst