Muscians with hearing damage, am I being too harsh?

[vernon]

Disaster Area

A plutonium rock band from the Gagrakacka Mind Zones, they are generally held to be not only the loudest rock band in the Galaxy, but in fact the loudest noise of any kind at all. Regular concert goers judge that the best sound balance is usually to be heard from within large concrete bunkers some thirty-seven miles from the stage, while the musicians themselves play their instruments by remote control from within a heavily insulated spaceship which stays in orbit around the planet – or more frequently around a completely different planet.

A bit like the Rolling Stones whose Roundhay Park gig I attended from the comfort of my back garden three and a half miles away. Heard every word and note perfectly.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Disaster Area

A plutonium rock band from the Gagrakacka Mind Zones

Dear old Douglas.

 

[caimg]

Extrapolating from one or two instances doesn't give you enough paint to cover the canvas and give the complete picture.

Yes there folk who like having their brains ratlled at gigs - I do sometimes.
Yes there musicians who have permanently damaged their hearing - add Pete Townsend as another high profile musician to your list
Yesterday while I was out on a 75 mile bike ride there were more than half a dozen instances where the cars approaching from the rear were detected by the rumbling bass sound from the pimped up sound system which drowned out the engine and exhaust sounds.

However,

Local authorities do impose sound limits on outdoor gigs and many indoor venues and my son has experienced an enforcement of a sound limit when playing a gig indoors.
Parents buy noise reducing ear muffs for their children at festivals - I rarely see infants and toddlers without them at the festivals that I attend.
Young rock musicians that I know all wear earplugs.
I think but can not prove that there's some MP3 player manufacturers who limit the energy levels available at the players' outputs.

I don't think either of us have full possession of the facts to present an accurate picture but I do think that you have overstated the problem. Things have improved and are continuing to improve. An overnight solution simply won't happen.

Trust me bud, nowhere near enough musicians wear earplugs based on the many many of them I know, have played with or met.

Indoor sound limits for gigs are NOWHERE near a safe level for ears, and lots ignore it if they think they'll get away with it anyway (that's venues and bands).

I'm not talking about 'one or two instances' otherwise I wouldn't have thrown my 2p in...I've been a full time pro musician for 8 years and been playing for over double that and it's alarming how most are naive to how easy your hearing is damaged. Most people I know who don't use them I'd wager have probably lost some of their hearing!

 

[rollinstok]

I think the whole H & S thing has had a negative impact in so many ways
We have now become so precious that we are unable to enjoy many experiences by being bound in cotton wool
Protecting your ears in a work environment fair enough. If you've never been to a gig where your teeth vibrate with the bass then you've never lived

 

[Browser]

I've no real problem with folk doing this rollinstok, just as long as in later life they don't go on to bleat about how no-one warned them/made them stop/stopped their hearing being damaged. Same as smokers who moan that they didn't know/weren't warned/shops shouldn't have sold them the fags. My grandfather died of a multitude of cancers but was first diagnosed in the late 60's, and even then smoking and lung cancer had been linked.
I'm all for freedom of choice, just don't expect a heck of a lot of sympathy when it has a detrimental effect on your health.
Adding fuel to the fire, my hobby is musical theatre, and it feels like being in the dark ages when I mention hearing protection/noise limitation in theatres. The Noise At Work regs came in in 2005 but entertainment venues were given a stay until 2008, but that still gives them nearly four years to have got up to speed. Sadly, many professional orchestra musicians' attitude is 'man up, if you can't take it find another job'

 

[NotthatJasonKenny]

I developed tinnitus after a Gomez concert in Manchester last year, wish I had worn a pair of ear plugs (since found splugze but daren't go to anymore concerts, too high a risk) so if the article helps at least one person avoid the discomfort I suffer then even a tool like Chris Martin has proved useful.

 

[djmc]

I dislike modern music and would never go to such a concert. However those who do obviously weigh up the benefits and disadvantages of their tastes. It is a different voluntarily exposing oneself to hazard or pain for pleasure (even if of a somewhat masochistic kind), and having to do it as part of ones job. It has been well known for a long time that loud noise has deleterious effects on hearing, but presumably those who go to such concerts feel that the pleasure outweighs the pain.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Chris Martin is a tool. I'm a pro musician and have had moulded custom earplugs since I was 18 because my ears are crucial to me as a musician (with perfect pitch, too).

He's an idiot for not wearing them and protecting his hearing, just as any other musoe is! At festivals and such the public are given free earplugs if they want them, it should defo be the same for live music venues in general.

Though the music work has dropped away and I don't really gig any more, I started wearing earplugs a long time ago whenever volumes went significantly above acoustic levels. To me, it's a bit like continuing to cycle hard when your knees are giving you gyp - in the end, it stops you doing what you love to do.

And ear plugs don't make it any more difficult to hear lower volumes - even front of stage you can hear other people's speech better with plugs in.

 

[Smokin Joe]

I've never understood the need for ear splitting volumes, it's something I've always regarded as a means to mask poor quality.

 

[vernon]

I've never understood the need for ear splitting volumes, it's something I've always regarded as a means to mask poor quality.

Try listening to 'Smoke on the Water' with the volume turned down....

 

[caimg]

Though the music work has dropped away and I don't really gig any more, I started wearing earplugs a long time ago whenever volumes went significantly above acoustic levels. To me, it's a bit like continuing to cycle hard when your knees are giving you gyp - in the end, it stops you doing what you love to do.

And ear plugs don't make it any more difficult to hear lower volumes - even front of stage you can hear other people's speech better with plugs in.

Exactly - people who haven't worn custom earplugs miss the point that the quality of music is retained with them in, unlike cheaper foam things; but even they are better than nothing!

 

[rollinstok]

Some music is for listening to
Some music you have to feel, its not a new thing. Imagine what it must have felt like in a circle around the tribal drums.

 

[StuAff]

First gig I went to, my ears rang for a week afterward. Ear plugs (cheap ones) ever since. Hearing fine. It's not worth the damage.....

 

[GordonB]

The reason the HSE aren't enforcing the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 at entertainment venues is simple - they are not the enforcing authority, that is down to your Local Authority Environmental Health Deprtment. However, noise at work does not even appear on the list of enforcement priorities for LAs so it doesn't get done. The problem is compounded by the fact that noise and acoustics is a specialist discipline that few EHOs working in health and safety are familiar with, that expertise is lodged firmly in the pollution control section.

So long as this remains the case, enforcement will always be very patchy but the situation is not helped by the fact that musicians regard themselves as a special case, not helped when they were given an additional 2 years to comply with the 2005 Regs, despite never having complied with the 1989 Regs that also applied to them.

Gordon

 

[Dan B]

Try listening to 'Smoke on the Water' with the volume turned down....

That's an excellent idea