I caught this article over the weekend via NPR.  This graph represents overall loudness in some of the most popular songs in the past 30 years.  Download a high-res PDF version.  It made me think of commercials on television.  Like when you’re reaching for the remote to turn down the TV during the commercial break because the volume gets ramped up.  They do that so you have to pay attention.  It’s a crude tactic, but I’m sure there are market studies and focus groups that prove a simple equation: If it’s louder, I’m more likely to hear it.  It seems like this is getting applied to records now, which in my humble opinion is making the music worse.

Think of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon.  That album was on the charts for like 750 weeks.  Nobody will say that it isn’t one of the best records of all time.  There are huge volume dynamics in that record, which is one of the album’s aspects that makes it so hypnotic.  One example of this is the heartbeat.  Would it have been as good if the heartbeat were compressed all the way to the top?  Maybe I’m not articulating this argument well enough.  Here’s a video I found that pretty much explains it in plain english:

OK, we hear it.  If you care enough about the art you are creating, don’t put out an album that peaks all the time.  Otherwise, you might as well be a Budweiser commercial.

.sonmi suite