Oct 6, 2026 · 1 hr 23 min · 15 segments
Every year, the National Hearing Conservation Association (NHCA) hosts two conferences, the most recent of which was the 2026 NHCA Fall Virtual Educational…
Laura SinnottGuest
Frank WartingerHostUm, I think that the first thing I want to sort of dispel is the, the sense that it's been getting louder over time.
Uh, concerts got really loud when electric guitars, electric guitar amps got more powerful from 1965, and bands that were really guitar driven started to actively seek that loudness that they...
Like bands like The Who, and, um, uh, The Grateful Dead in, in, in, in California.
Um, at one point they needed to start amplifying the drums because the drums couldn't be heard over the guitar amps anymore.
And then within a few weeks they realized we have to amplify everything, and actually, oh, now we're gonna need loudspeakers on stage so we can actually hear ourself.
Oh, and actually now we need to buy much bigger loudspeakers and much bigger amplifiers too.
So the data we have from the late, uh, late '60s are hard to interpret it, but they show numbers that are likely the same as what we see now.
Um, uh, the, what, what actually changed is that the, the audience got much bigger.
They were limited to, you know, uh, more wealthy countries, uh, younger audiences, and they would maybe see their favorite rock band once a year.
Whereas now you can see a band every week all over the planet in, in any country.
And so, um, concerts didn't necessarily get louder, but the people ex- the number of people exposed to it, um, so the total loudness experienced by the global audience has gone up madly.
And I think that is what also what the WHO tries to address with that standards.
It's a compromise, right? It's still, it proposes a value, uh, it's 100 dBA, uh, LAQ 15 minutes.
But the goal is that we can prevent concerts that are louder than that, and that are stupid loud.
No occurrence of stupid loud, um, so more than 100 decibels over 15 minutes is still very high.
Like, for instance, in the Netherlands, it's 103 over 15 decibels that, over, over, over 15 minutes.
Um, I think that the first thing I want to sort of dispel is the, the sense that it's been getting louder over time.
Uh, concerts got really loud when electric guitars, electric guitar amps got more powerful from 1965, and bands that were really guitar driven started to actively seek that loudness that they...
Like bands like The Who, and, um, uh, The Grateful Dead in, in, in, in California.
Um, at one point they needed to start amplifying the drums because the drums couldn't be heard over the guitar amps anymore.
And then within a few weeks they realized we have to amplify everything, and actually, oh, now we're gonna need loudspeakers on stage so we can actually hear ourself.
Oh, and actually now we need to buy much bigger loudspeakers and much bigger amplifiers too.
So the data we have from the late, uh, late '60s are hard to interpret it, but they show numbers that are likely the same as what we see now.
Um, uh, the, what, what actually changed is that the, the audience got much bigger.
They were limited to, you know, uh, more wealthy countries, uh, younger audiences, and they would maybe see their favorite rock band once a year.
Whereas now you can see a band every week all over the planet in, in any country.
And so, um, concerts didn't necessarily get louder, but the people ex- the number of people exposed to it, um, so the total loudness experienced by the global audience has gone up madly.
And I think that is what also what the WHO tries to address with that standards.
It's a compromise, right? It's still, it proposes a value, uh, it's 100 dBA, uh, LAQ 15 minutes.
But the goal is that we can prevent concerts that are louder than that, and that are stupid loud.
No occurrence of stupid loud, um, so more than 100 decibels over 15 minutes is still very high.
Like, for instance, in the Netherlands, it's 103 over 15 decibels that, over, over, over 15 minutes.
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