I found the idea of the decline of dynamic range to be very bizarre. It’s certainly not something I had ever in my life thought of before, at least in terms of music. The idea that the sounds you are hearing remain at the same volume regardless of the tone with which they are spoken is kind of scary. It reminds me of another blog post I have seen in the past where it instructed the reader to try to scream in their head. No matter how hard you try, the volume inside your head doesn’t change.

This lack of dynamic range in music now kind of frightens me. It’s like they are trying to make music as though it is inside your head. That sounds kind of weird but that’s just how it feels- as though, despite that you have control over what happens in your brain to an extent, you can’t control the volume of the voices. The whole thing is kind of distressing. It’s like reading typed words as well:

This sounds quiet.

This sounds loud.

THIS SOUNDS LOUDER.

But in the end you go over them again and the volume in your head does not, in fact, change. I debate with myself whether or not the return of the dynamic range would be a good or bad thing. On the one hand I want to really listen to the music and hear voices as they would be in real life- louder or quieter depending on how the speaker or singer intends them. But on the other hand, it does take a lot more concentration to listen to that kind of music. Do I want to dedicate myself to this kind of focus every time I want to listen to a song?

Perhaps this is why classical music was so popular before compression was a thing. In that case, focusing on the words would be less relaxing than just listening to some straight instrumentals. Now however we get that same effect from every song pumped out of the radio. Maybe that’s just silly and it has nothing to do with anything. But for me I think in the end, as much as I would like to prefer music that requires focus, I’d probably just end up listening to what was easier.