Can you hear me!

Can you hear me?

This past week involved a lot of going out for various occasions, events and ceremonies. Naturally, there were food, drinks, exchange of news and gossip, even airing of clothes which had not seen the light of the day due to Covid-caused social distancing.

Most of these outings were enjoyable and I had a good time. Yet, on a couple of occasions I did find something to complain about- the jarring music.

At one such event, out of love for us, the host seated us in the front row where the makeshift dance floor was set up. Troubled by the blaring music, a friend and I moved to the end of the hall. Someone from the family noticed this, tut-tutted and escorted us back to the front. After a few seconds we got up and went back. Someone came again and started cajoling us to sit in the front. We tried to explain but were inaudible. Finally, after a few similar attempts, they perhaps felt that we were party-poopers and left us alone.   

The party-lovers included a couple swaying with a pair of a few-month old twins in their arms who looked zombied out in the bright lights and blaring music. What to talk of ear muffs or ear plugs to block that noise, the parents did not have even a swab of cotton wool in their ears.

As it is we Indians tend to speak loudly. When cell phone first came in and it was a status symbol to possess one, you could see people holding it to the ear and speaking loudly in the air as if delivering dialogues for somebody else’s sake.

We are constantly being bombarded with cacophony caused by traffic and ambulances on the roads, schools in residential colonies using loudspeakers, loud noise at construction sites, religious places, fitness centres, weddings, religious, public and political functions and all celebrations. Are the people playing blaring music in their cars able to hear the horns of the traffic following them?

‘One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain,” sang Bob Marley (Trenchtown Rock, 1973). Music helps fight negative emotions and several experiments have shown even animals and birds respond to it, yet that is not about loud sounds.

But an evening with friends at a cocktail bar turned into a cause for a headache. In the eardrum-tearing music, we could not hear what others were saying, even giving out our orders was tough. Although all of us appreciated the big show of blow-torching the misshapen cloud of candy floss around ice cream into a brittle sheet, everyone felt there was little point of going out with friends when you can’t hear one another.

Most of us turn the volume knob clockwise to pick out the lyrics of songs. The audio equipment and acoustics industries exist for these nuances. The sensation you get when your favorite song comes up is called ‘Frisson’. The brain releases dopamine when songs we like reach their peak, even anticipation of these moments trigger dopamine release.

We all know someone who locks himself/herself into a room, plays the music at the full volume, and the whole neighbourhood vibrates with the sounds of ear-piercing beats, screeching guitars, pulsating drums and if you are unlucky, he/she sings along too.

Surprisingly, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience says that the findings of a study indicate that extreme music did not make angry participants angrier; rather, it appeared to match their physiological arousal and result in an increase in positive emotions. Listening to extreme music may represent a healthy way of processing anger for these listeners. (https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00272/full)

People expect the music to be loud at pubs, bars, discos, sports and music events and perhaps the management also wants to live with that image.

David Welch and Guy Fremaux interviewed regular night-clubbers, bar managers, musicians, DJs, and sound engineers in Auckland and found there were four main reasons, in fact a powerful cocktail, of why people like loud music.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5580611/

The findings in short:

1. It makes them feel positive, happier, upbeat, enthusiastic, energized and even alive. It gets them going, especially for physical exercise or dance.

2. Loud music is associated with forming a connection with others, a sense of belonging to the group through the sharing of an experience. It also facilitates social interaction by removing social inhibitions as well as ‘intimate’ (presumably physical) social exchange, particularly in nightclubs, because they make conversations more difficult.

3. At the level of the perceived environment, amplified sounds could both shield a person from their own unwelcome thoughts, and from unwelcome intrusion by outside noise providing an escape. Loud music gives a sense of control of their soundscape or ‘personal aural space’.

4. Loud sounds can even make people feel a stronger identity, particularly of power and toughness. It is also believed that loud sounds are associated with a ‘cool’ image.

Like loud engine noises, amplified music also gives men a feeling of masculinity. Though the term ‘manliness’ is used, the ability to overcome a fear-response, a sense of self-control and power, may be pleasurable for both genders.

https://knops.co/magazine/5-reasons-brain-loud-music/

says, ‘There’s a reason that audio engineers, artists and musicians quite often have (an early stage) of tinnitus. For them to be able to pick up all the complexities of a song, they crank up the volume. (Tinnitus is hissing, ringing or buzzing in a person’s ears or head without them being produced by an external source.)

We grimace on hearing a fork scraping on a plate, furniture screeching on the floor, grinding of teeth but loud music is accepted in the society, despite the known impacts on health it causes.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention says

Listening to loud noise for a long time can overwork hair cells in the ear, which can cause these cells to die. Harmful effects might continue even after noise exposure has stopped. Damage to the inner ear or auditory neural system is generally permanent.

Early damage may not show up on your hearing test. It can create a ‘hidden hearing loss’ that may make it difficult for you to understand speech in noisy places. https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/hearing_loss

But what scares me is a study by Germany’s Mainz University Medical Center in

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/loud-noises-bad 

an increasing amount of noise can actually throw your heart out of rhythm. Called atrial fibrillation, this irregular heart beat can lead to blood clots, stroke, and even heart failure.

“Anything that can create agitation, irritation, or changes in blood pressure can trigger fibrillation,” explains Dr. Shilpi Agarwal physician from Washington. “It’s not surprising that irritable noise, or noise in general when someone is looking for quiet, could trigger this in the cardiac system.”

“Irritability and anxiety worsen in noisy environments,” Agarwal says. Scientists at Seoul National University found that men exposed to relatively low levels of noise — like that of an air-conditioner — for eight years were more likely to be diagnosed with infertility. Nighttime noise exposure’s been linked to miscarriage, premature birth and birth defects.

The top prize for sonic invasion last week should perhaps go to my baraat (wedding  procession) experience.  Since both families – bride’s and groom’s, were staying in the same hotel, the band stood across the road and we walked to participate in it. We dragged our feet as the cables of the men holding heavy lights on the sides, the bandwallahs in the front and more relatives at the back pronounced our boundaries to the ongoing traffic on the road. The distance to be covered was comically short, but since it was a ritual to be completed, the wedding party took their own sweet time dancing in the 38 degrees, sweating under the finery and thoroughly enjoying it. I was squirming under the heat of my own guilt at being a member of this traffic-blocking procession at 10 p.m., all the time conscious of the huge hospital on the left and in my mind offering my apologies to the patients and their wards inside for violating their peace and quiet.

And didn’t I ever mention if I was thankful for the lockdown it was merely because the bars and restaurants in the arcade at the back of our building were closed? That meant we got temporary reprieve from loud music playing well past midnight especially on the weekends, and the huge air conditioners on the roof behind our apartment were also silent.  

So, before you hit the volume button of your music player, just look around, maybe  a student is trying to concentrate, a sick person or a child is craving peace and quiet, somebody else is trying to solve life issues or is just not interested in that genre. Your music may hit the wrong cord in their heart.

By the way May is better hearing and speech month.  

             

 

                                                                                         -Anupama S Mani