History Main / LoudnessWar

* LoudnessWar/{{Aversions}}

* One of the most infamous examples is Music/IggyPop's 1997 remaster of ''Music/RawPower'' by Music/TheStooges, being constantly in the red and occasionally averaging -4 dBFS. The album was intended to sound loud, blunt, and unsubtle, but there's a difference between "exhilaratingly loud" and "headache-inducing, unlistenable sonic mess". Even his bandmates James Williamson and Ron Asheton think he fucked up horribly here. This is often cited as an example of an [[ArtisticLicense artistic]] use of the phenomenon, as Iggy Pop has been cited as saying he wanted to "recreate the feel of an old, worn-out vinyl". Given the overwhelming amount of crackling, distorted midrange on the disc, it's easy to say this goal was at least somewhat accomplished. However, given that the results often cause listener fatigue, most people wish he had used some other method of creating this feel.
** There is hope, however: Sony released the "Master Edition" in April 2010 with the original Music/DavidBowie mix reinstated and slightly beefed-up to fix some of the valid criticisms of his original mix (inaudible bass and the like). It just might be the first step towards reversing the trend in general. Even better was a 2012 vinyl remaster, which is discussed further under "Aversions".

** It seems half the comments on the [[https://www.youtube.com/show/startrek YouTube showing]] of ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' ([[NoExportforYou only available to Americans]]) are about the advertisements being way, way, WAY louder than the low-levelled audio. Video advertisements being infamously louder than TV programs (with much of the same brickwalled audio quality that even the uninitiated can recognize as 'sounding like a commercial'), and the TV program being leveled at about what you might get in the 1960s (or maybe a DVD), suddenly the advertisements get perfectly normal people ''screaming'' to all-out boycott the products advertised.
*** This comes up in Australia every few months.

!!Examples
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[[caption-width-right:350:Top: Dynamic range. Bottom: Dynamic pain.[[note]]''[[Music/GunsNRoses Chinese Democracy]]'' was actually released four years '''''after''''' ''[[Music/GreenDay American Idiot]]'', but the engineer apparently knew what he was doing.[[/note]]]]

Note that this is a separate issue from the loudness or intensity of music by ''genre''. When loud music is used as a weapon, that's LoudOfWar. Not to be confused with ''[[Roleplay/RecordOfLodossWar Lodoss War]]''. Note that this trope is not named for [[Music/{{Loudness}} the band]] that did the soundtrack to ''Anime/MazinkaiserSKL''.

See also RidiculouslyLoudCommercial for similar techniques used in advertising.

Any recording medium has an absolute limit when it comes to amplitude, and compact discs are no exception. Once audio engineers managed to max out, the only solution to [[BuffySpeak out-loud]] those [[LensmanArmsRace other CDs]] was to break out the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_range_compression dynamic range compression]], which squashes every bit up to the same volume level, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listener_fatigue causing listener fatigue]].[[note]]In addition to dynamic range compression, sound engineers can use overdrive distortion (or outright digital clipping) to further increase the average amplitude of a track. Another trick is to increase the "perceived loudness" of a track by emphasizing frequency ranges the human ear is more sensitive to (highs and high-mids) and de-emphasizing others (very low sub bass and sometimes mids).[[/note]] The often-used analogy here is that of attempting to read a text written entirely in capitals in a huge font. In movies, OrangeBlueContrast has a similar effect; since the contrast is pleasing to the eye, producers will push at as far as possible, often over-saturating the film in these colours and squashing out more subtle colours entirely.

* Virtually any recent act that psych-rock producer David Fridmann has worked with, like Music/FlamingLips, Music/{{MGMT}} and Music/TameImpala. A prominent example is Music/{{MGMT}}'s ''Music/OracularSpectacular'': They asked Fridmann to turn up the gain to make it sound "dirty", turning "Kids" in particular from [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_MCp_-uwVo this]] to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBd46BbdTfs this]].

* The alternative rock band Music/SleighBells [[http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/07/the-loudness-wars-is-musics-noisy-arms-race-over/242293/ went for an intentionally compressed sound]], although their guitarist Derek Miller later admitted that his own music's loudness was annoying to him.

* Intentionally used by most dubstep artists, including [[http://www.dr.loudness-war.info/index.php?search_artist=skrillex&search_album= Skrillex]](except for the vinyls) and [[http://www.dr.loudness-war.info/index.php?search_artist=Bassnectar Bassnectar]].

* One of the first examples is Music/TheRollingStones' single "Have You Seen Your Mother Baby, Standing In The Shadow". Although it's never been explained why, contemporary recording standards suggest that it must have been deliberate.

Any recording medium has an absolute limit when it comes to amplitude, and compact discs are no exception. Once audio engineers managed to max out, the only solution to go even more UpToEleven and [[BuffySpeak out-loud]] those [[LensmanArmsRace other CDs]] was to break out the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_range_compression dynamic range compression]], which squashes every bit up to the same volume level, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listener_fatigue causing listener fatigue]].[[note]]In addition to dynamic range compression, sound engineers can use overdrive distortion (or [[UpToEleven outright digital clipping]]) to further increase the average amplitude of a track. Another trick is to increase the "perceived loudness" of a track by emphasizing frequency ranges the human ear is more sensitive to (highs and high-mids) and de-emphasizing others (very low sub bass and sometimes mids).[[/note]] The often-used analogy here is that of attempting to read a text written entirely in capitals in a huge font. In movies, OrangeBlueContrast has a similar effect; since the contrast is pleasing to the eye, producers will push at as far as possible, often over-saturating the film in these colours and squashing out more subtle colours entirely.

* [[Music/DevinTownsend Strapping Young Lad]] [[InvokedTrope invokes]] this for the sole purpose of creating a [[UpToEleven gigantic and unrelenting wall of sound]]. It's unpleasant, [[StylisticSuck but that's]] [[SensoryAbuse the point.]] (Note that while all SYL [=CDs=] are horribly brickwalled, only ''Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing'' and ''The New Black'' are clipped). Averted somewhat on the vinyl editions, which are significantly quieter.

* Frequently [[SensoryAbuse intentionally invoked]] by Hellektro bands such as Suicide Commando, whose ''Implements of Hell'' album is almost [[UpToEleven solidly brickwalled]] as well as having horrendous clipping on par with ''Death Magnetic''.

* Many acts on Ed Banger Records, like {{Music/Justice}}, [=SebastiAn=] and Vicarious Bliss, who use [[https://web.archive.org/web/20130930200820/http://i43.tinypic.com/xprhvn.png absurd amounts of compression]] to create a signature sound, and in Justice's case, using digital noise and clipping as an instrument.

Note that this is a separate issue from the loudness or intensity of music by ''genre''; that's discussed under MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness. When loud music is used as a weapon, that's LoudOfWar. Not to be confused with ''[[Roleplay/RecordOfLodossWar Lodoss War]]''. Note that this trope is not named for [[Music/{{Loudness}} the band]] that did the soundtrack to ''Anime/MazinkaiserSKL''.

*** They've also released the stems for ''Exmilitary'' on [[http://thirdworlds.net/index.php their website]] (as ''Black Google'') to encourage remixing (with the side effect that people can make their own de-[[WebAnimation/HomestarRunner loudness war'd]] mixes) and released an "unmastered" version of ''The Money Store'' which is nowhere near as loud.

* Virtually any recent act that psych-rock producer David Fridmann has worked with, like Music/FlamingLips, Music/{{MGMT}} and Music/TameImpala. It can be traced back to Music/{{MGMT}}'s ''Music/OracularSpectacular'': They asked Fridmann to turn up the gain to make it sound "dirty", turning "Kids" in particular from [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_MCp_-uwVo this]] to [[http://youtu.be/fe4EK4HSPkI this]].