Turn It Down!

Our culture loves loud noise. Everything is too loud.

True story–I went to a large computer store to buy a computer. The music, punk rock, was blaring through the overhead speakers so loud I had to shout (literally) to speak to a salesperson. I was out the door. Sometimes I watch souped up cars drive by and their sound system shakes windows in nearby stores. It’s like everybody wishes they lived next to the airport. They play this awful music over overhead loudspeakers in the malls here now. And each store has its own too-loud overhead music.

Some enclosed sports venue sound systems pump out sounds at 137+ decibels. That exceeds the pain threshold. Sitting in that venue is like standing 100 feet from a jet airliner.

My son took me to an NFL game downtown in a domed stadium last year. The sound screaming from that surround sound gave me a headache. At one point my son turned to me and said, “I wish I had a sound system like that at home.” Obviously he’s of a different generation. I had to shout over the speakers just to talk with him.

TV advertisers are guilty of raising the noise level of their commercials to an irritating level. Praise God for mute buttons.

I learned my lesson about loud noise at a Doobie Brothers concert in 1995. It was my last live concert. I’m satisfied listening to CD’s now.

I understand it’s hard to muffle jack hammers and heavy construction equipment and jet airplanes and ambulances and fire engines. But why, O God, why must everything now be so loud? I know why fire engines and ambulances are so loud. They have to be loud because the cars in traffic can’t hear them. Cars in traffic have their windows rolled up. Drivers become distracted by cell phone conversations or music blaring from their radios, CD’s, or ear buds. They’re not paying attention to traffic.

Where’s elevator music when you really need it?   Time’s up.