The loudness wars refers to a trend of artists increasing the volume of their songs in order to stand out on radio and streaming services. This was done through aggressive dynamic range compression, limiting, etc.
The Loudness wars impacted the quality of audios as heavily compressing tracks meant that the difference between the soft and loud parts became less noticeable. This meant that music became less artistically expressive and rather fatiguing through the overwhelming loudness and reduced dynamic range. Furthermore, an increase in tracks clipping and sounding distorted became apparent as producers pushed audio beyond digital limits.
Alongside the compression, excessive loudness in music meant that songs had a similar energy, despite if artists intended for different moods, because of the lack of dynamic range. Also through instrumentation often getting lost in the mix, resulting in flat sounding songs. Meaning that most songs started to sound the same, completely dismissing artists initial intentions to stand out through loudness.
Pushback of the Loudness wars has become popular due to streaming platforms such as spotify and apple music normalisng playback volume. A notable album (Metallica’s Death Magnetic) involved listeners criticizing the band for its excessive loudness and poor mastering. This was during the peak of the Loudness wars, which then allowed for an awareness of audio quality where we now have seen a modern reversal with tracks reverting back to quality mixes and attentive detail.
Loudness in music is very misleading for producers as it is easy to mistake loudness for better. Humans often associate loud music with positive experiences so it is understandable that producers subconsciously find themselves increasing volumes. With this research, i have identified these mistakes that i have done and it has helped me become aware with what not to do in future mixes. Louder does not equal to better.
https://www.soundguys.com/the-loudness-war-51513
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