The ‘loudness wars’ are an ongoing ‘battle’ within the music industry. A competition of sorts between producers and mastering engineers to make their tracks as loud as humanly possible. This trend was started in the early 00’s by the mannerism that ‘louder is better’ and fueled by advancements in technology along with new consumer listening habits, the quality of new music of the time was heavily impacted.
WIth record makers striving for loudness, dynamics have been sacrificed, leading to a huge loss in depth and fidelity in the music. As each new track tried to be the loudest on the radio, the subtleties and nuances that make music rich and engaging have been compressed and crushed, leading to listener fatigue and decreased enjoyment.
The main example for this which was discussed in class is the heavy metal band ‘Metallica’s’ “Death Magnetic” album which is infamous for its heavily compressed and distorted sound. The album received widespread criticism from both fans and audio engineers for its poor sound quality and absence of dynamics.
In the book “Mastering Audio: The Art And The Science” by the engineer ‘Bob Katz’, he highlights the degrading effects of excessive loudness on the quality of music. He mentions how the hyper compression can lead to a diminished emotional connection to the music.
With my new found knowledge of mastering, I can make sure to not make the same mistakes previous mix engineers have made, keeping dynamics rather than selling out and brickwalling my efforts to get attention,
Hiatt, B. (2008). Death Magnetic. [online] Rolling Stone. Available at: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/death-magnetic-250620/ [Accessed 11 Apr. 2024].
Wikipedia. (2020). Loudness war. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war.
Katz, B. (2013). Mastering audio : the art and the science. New York: Focal Press.