The Compression of Music
The trend in music nowadays is to compress it. Most of my generation had no idea that dynamic range in most of the music we listen to is non-existent, or barely there at all. It seems the older generations aren’t fond of our taste in music because everything is “too loud” and the compression makes the song “bland”.
So is our taste in music bad? In our defense, this type of music is all we have ever known. The huge advances in technology have made it possible to alter the volume of a song, making it more convenient to listen to, and with so many distractions in everyday life, some people just like to tune everything out and listen to their music. The musician’s volume changes only slightly/not at all no matter how loud they are actually singing.
So why does our generation’s music have no dynamic range? I believe it’s because of how our generation listens to music. For example, we frequently listen to music through headphones, big speakers, or our cars. Constantly adjusting the volume would become annoying.