TV and radio — why has it gotten so loud?

[bryantm3]

i was having a discussion with my dad a few minutes ago, and the television was on, and we had to go turn it off because it was so disrupting. he said "i can't stand the television going on like that, maybe it's because i'm old," and then, i said "well, dad, the television has gotten so loud and disrupting in the last twenty years, same thing with radio." and i've noticed this happening for a while. for example, in station IDs, the DJs shout instead of talk and have loud annoying fast paced music in the background that they're shouting over, and it's like they're competing with each other to see how loud they can be. why not turn the music off and talk? listen to casey kasem's program from the 80s and early 90s- he just talked, he didn't shout over music, and he had some of the best ratings. at the end of television programs, they don't even show the credits anymore, they jam them over on the side of the screen to fill the second half up with some guy screaming about the new program on tonight, or selling some junk. what if i don't want to see that? in addition, watch cartoons now compared to cartoons in even 1998. for example, the fairly odd parents on nickelodeon consistantly has dialogue- you can't even count to five before someone speaks or something explodes. hey arnold would be the converse to that, in that it wasn't necessarily fast paced, but was a great cartoon.

does the media market just think that we're so inattentive that they have to scream at us to keep us in our seats? personally i find it insulting that they have to dumb everything down expecting everyone to have extremely short attention spans, and to be honest, it's downright annoying to be listening to a song on the radio and instead of a smooth transition to the next song, they have to come in and shout.

am i alone in this?

[IsiliRunite]

commercials are frequently louder than the programming, i've noticed. i think you are onto something.

[Jan]

It's the loudness war. The only things we can do about it is educate others and listen to albums and TV/radio programs that have a sane dynamic range.
Look into ReplayGain if you haven't already (won't help with TV/radio but with CD's).
I don't even watch TV anymore... eztv/online streaming for sports is all I really need.

[luminary]

The Loudness War



http://www.turnmeup.org/

"Turn Me Up!™ is a non-profit music industry organization campaigning to give artists back the choice to release more dynamic records. To be clear, it's not our goal to discourage loud records; they are, of course, a valid choice for many artists. We simply want to make the choice for a more dynamic record an option for artists."

[IsiliRunite]

Uh oh, you may have just ruined my listening experience forever by introducing me to the loudness war!

Now its not only the music that sucks that I need avoid, but the good music that is made bad in unavoidable, unnecessary ways. That sucks.

[viddy]

On the animation note, Family Guy is mixed quite nicely by comparison. It's quite a quiet, dynamic mix compared to a lot of other shows.

[Troy McClure]

To add to this, most sports arenas / stadiums across the US are one LOUD clusterbomb of noise. The NBA has music going on during the entire game. During timeouts, there are fan contests, mascot skits, etc. Even baseball is falling into this realm of 'quiet must be boring' entertainment.

--Jason

[cacophony]

there's a physiological reason for the loudness war. the human brain is designed to identify loud, sustained sounds as warning signals, alarms, something requiring attention. it's difficult to overcome the impulse to pay attention because we evolved to listen for things we identify as warnings.

compressing and jacking up the volume on content makes the noise level more sustained and thus taps into our compulsion to pay attention. it's an exploitation of an evolved reflex.

Human brains have evolved to pay particular attention to loud noises, so compressed sounds initially seem more exciting.

when i was audio engineering we were encouraged (read: strong armed) to compress the shit out of anything intended for broadcast. regardless of the necessity.

[Rog]

Originally Posted by Troy McClure

To add to this, most sports arenas / stadiums across the US are one LOUD clusterbomb of noise. The NBA has music going on during the entire game. During timeouts, there are fan contests, mascot skits, etc. Even baseball is falling into this realm of 'quiet must be boring' entertainment.

--Jason

sports arena's? go to Anfield......it's fuckin LOUD.....no music-just supporters! Old Trafford is almost as loud......

[Sean]

Originally Posted by cacophony

there's a physiological reason for the loudness war. the human brain is designed to identify loud, sustained sounds as warning signals, alarms, something requiring attention. it's difficult to overcome the impulse to pay attention because we evolved to listen for things we identify as warnings.

compressing and jacking up the volume on content makes the noise level more sustained and thus taps into our compulsion to pay attention. it's an exploitation of an evolved reflex.



when i was audio engineering we were encouraged (read: strong armed) to compress the shit out of anything intended for broadcast. regardless of the necessity.

That's a very interesting point since I think about issues based largely on how our evolution has shaped the human species. Great insights, Cacophony.