It is no secret that prolonged exposure to loud sound is highly damaging to our hearing. Listening to loud music is one of the common factors leading to degraded hearing ability and tinnitus, and is deeply unhealthy.
At the same time, such level of noise negatively impacts the quality of sound perception, which degrades the musical side of the musical performance.
In what seems to be the echoes of the so-called “loudness war”, bands still stick to the idea that “the louder you blast it - the better”. But it’s not true. There are many other ways to energize the crowd without causing them sound damage, and I’d love to see more of those, instead of them trying to be the loudest ever.
Protect your hearing.
I did not and today, at the age of 54, I cannot hear above 13khz when I used to be able to hear above 20khz. Part of that is age, but most of it is from not using hearing protection at concerts and other activities where I should have been using it.
Any constant noise above 80db will damage your hearing. 80db is a LOT quieter than you think it is.
I absolutely do wear earplugs when going there. People find it weird, but we’ll see who’s gonna hear my laughter in a few years.
You mean like firing a pistol in an elevator?
Doesn’t everyone do that to get a good start to their day? Shit sometimes I do it in the parking garage because the echo gives me double tinnitus.
Skydiving.
I have ~4500 jumps and jump planes are very loud. Even with a full face helmet, jump planes are very loud and I didn’t use ear plugs until my last 1000 jumps or so.
I do have a fair amount of time shooting, but always used ear protection.