[All Episodes]
#7: Footsteps
#6: Series in Decline
#5: Sex, Death and Morals in Horror
#4: The Loudness War
#3: The Rule of Threes
#2: Bad Translations
#1: The Drums From "Be My Baby"
The Loudness War is the pejorative name given to the decades-long struggle to try and make the loudest record, to have that one song that’ll stand out above the flood of other sounds we hear, musical and non-musical, on a daily basis. Of course, with everybody competing for the next loudest record, all this has done is made that flood much, much louder. And people are starting to say enough!
Why is loudness bad? Is loudness bad? How loud is too loud? What do those shiny little plastic discs we used to pay twenty dollars for have to do with all this? What’s it going to take to end this thing once and for all? The answers to these questions—and some very loud music along the way—this time on Sounds Familiar.
Next week: “The Rule of Threes”
Lars Ulrich thinks it sounds great.
Loudness Wars, this week on Sounds Familiar.
Christopher Clark’s Loudness Wars infograph (there’s a zoom-able version at npr.org).
This week the podcast’s all about Loudness.
People have strong opinions about the loudness war.
…this week on Sounds Familiar.
It’s loudness wars, this week on Sounds Familiar.
The trend of increasing loudness in recorded music is demonstrated here, using “Something” by the Beatles.
