Quote - One problem with modern music is that overzealous compression of dynamic range makes much of it physically difficult to listen to, regardless of its musical merit.
 
During the '90s, as digital compression became ubiquitous, record companies and artists demanded that mastering engineers make their records physically louder, which led to the "volume wars" that still rage today. Phyically louder records mean very little dynamic movement, with the meters often pinned, and this on a recording medium with the most available dynamic range ever!

The psychoacoustic fallout of this move is decreased perception of stereo image and listener fatique, which is why many modern records sound crappy.

If you have a waveform editor, pull up an old Who song, or some other classic '70s recording, and look t the wave. It breathes! Now, pull up a modern rock track, and you'll notice the wave pretty much smacks the ceiling all the way through. Ugh. And people wonder why record sales are in the toilet.

 

Correct-a-mundo!  And that's one of the reasons why I like to make use of dynamics in my own music.  Gives the loud bits much more impact.  OTOH, the average listener is quite happy to be led by the nose anyhow.  The music industry is just that, more than ever, an industry.  It took the majors a long time to get up to speed with the marketing, compared to other forms of entertainment but they finally managed it, to the detriment of everyone's listening pleasure.

My one hope is the backlash that seems to be coming, brought about by the likes of Prince and Radiohead.  I think more artists will follow suit and as they do, the music company majors will be having conniptions.

Coppula eam se non posit acceptera jocularum.

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