Last night someone who lives near us had a party and treated the entire neighborhood to live music, amplified a horrendous level, so that in our house it was much louder than we ever turn up music we want to listen to. Not only was the music beyond loud, it was also beyond vulgar. I hated being subjected to that auditory invasion. It's illegal here to make noise louder than a certain decibel level, but I didn't call the police, because I'm sure it wouldn't have helped.
This abuse of sound systems is common in Israel, where I live, but I'm sure Israel isn't unique in this respect. I have attended weddings where the background music, as it were, was so loud you couldn't hold a conversation without shouting. Time and time again I have asked waiters to have the music turned down in restaurants. Sometimes it works. I have often attended concerts, not of classical music, where microphones were placed in pianos, even in small halls. Why? It spoils the sound of the piano, an instrument capable of flooding a vast auditorium with music. All the instruments in a jazz ensemble, except the guitar and bass, are naturally very loud. Why bother with microphones? At least string quartets aren't amplified. Perhaps that day will come.
Soundmen are all afflicted with megalomania. Or else by now they are all so deaf, because they have bombarded their own ears with so much noise that they can't hear unless they amplify music to the level of distortion.
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