Loudest band

The loudest band in the world is a subject of some dispute in musical circles. Many bands have claimed to be the loudest, measuring this in various ways including with decibel meters at concerts and by engineering analysis of the CDs on which their albums are published. The Guinness World Records no longer celebrates "The Loudest Band in the World" for fear of promoting hearing loss.[1]

Decibel records

Sound level may be metered on several ways: Average, maximum level (with the sound level meter set to Fast, Slow, Impulse, or Peak), etc. In addition, there are several decibel scales. Therefore, the decibels on the following list are not necessarily comparable.

1969

Daniel Kreps of Rolling Stone has maintained that "Whole Lotta Love" established Led Zeppelin's reputation as one of the loudest bands of their time.[2]

1972

Deep Purple was recognised by The Guinness Book of World Records as the "globe's loudest band" for a concert at the London Rainbow Theatre, during which the sound reached 117 dB and three members of the audience fell unconscious.[3][4]

1976

The Who were next to be listed as the "record holder" at 126 dB, having been measured 32 metres (105 feet) from the speakers during a concert in London at The Valley on 31 May 1976.[5]

1984 and 1994

The Guinness Book of World Records listed Manowar as the loudest band for a performance in 1984. The band claimed a louder measurement of 129.5 dB in 1994 at Hanover,[6] but Guinness did not recognise it, having discontinued the category by that time for fear of encouraging hearing damage.[7][8][9][10][11]

1986

An article by Scott Cohen appeared in February 1986 issue of Spin entitled "Motörhead is the Loudest Band on Earth".[12] In it, Cohen alluded to an undated concert during which Cleveland's Variety Theater actually sustained damage from Motörhead reaching a decibel level of 130.[12] This he reported was 10 decibels louder than the record set by The Who.[12]

1996

The English House/Electronica band Leftfield, while on tour to support their debut album Leftism, gained notoriety for the sheer volume of their live shows. In June 1996, while the group was playing at Brixton Academy, the sound system caused dust and plaster to fall from the roof, with the sound volume reaching 137 dB.[13]

2007

British punk band Gallows allegedly broke Manowar's penultimate record, claiming to have reached 132.5 dB; however, this record claim was made in an isolated studio as opposed to a live environment.[14]

2008

Manowar registered an SPL of 139 dB during the sound check (not the actual performance) at the Magic Circle Fest in 2008.[15]

2009

On July 15, at a Canadian concert in Ottawa, the band Kiss recorded an SPL of 136 dB measured during their live performance. Noise complaints from residents in the area eventually forced the band to turn the volume down.[16]

Deafening sound
Main article: Noise-induced hearing loss

Loud sounds have long been known to cause damage to ears. In Norway, this fact was proved for coppersmiths as far back as 1731.[17] Acoustic instruments may represent a risk for hearing damage, especially with lengthy exercising in rooms with high reverberation.[18] However, the sound level and the risk have increased with more powerful amplifiers and loudspeakers, and the volume at some concerts is far above the level which may induce such damage without ear protection. 115 dBA (decibel-A) at average may be risky even after 30 seconds,[19] and a 10 dB increase means increasing the sound level by a factor of ten (an angle grinder at 1 m gives about 100 dBA, and in UK, Norway, etc., it is strictly prohibited for workers to use it more than a few minutes without ear protection). The sound level claimed at some of Manowar's performances may cause ear damage almost immediately; the phrase deafening sound should be taken literally. The Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 introduced safety limits for daily noise exposure in the UK like 92 dBA as average during 30 minutes.[20]

Parodies

The notion of "loudness equals greatness" pervades rock music to the extent that it has been satirized. In the mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, the band is presented by the fictional filmmaker Marty di Bergi as "one of England's loudest bands". One popular joke from the film features Nigel Tufnel displaying the band's amplifiers which are calibrated up to 11, instead of up to 10, allowing them to go "one louder". As a consequence of this, manufacturers began making amplifiers with knobs that went up to 11, or even higher, with Eddie Van Halen reputedly being the first to purchase one.[21] Marshall, the company that provided amplifiers for the film that the custom marked knobs were applied to, now sells amplifiers such as its JCM900 (first sold in 1990) whose knobs are marked from 0 to 20.[21][22]

The fictional band Disaster Area (appearing in Douglas Adams's The Restaurant at the End of the Universe) plays concerts which can literally devastate entire planets. The audience listens from a specially-constructed concrete bunker some thirty miles from the stage, and the band plays its instruments by remote control from a spacecraft in orbit around the planet (or around a different planet).

See also

References
  1. Bray, Elisa (2009-08-06). "Bad vibrations: Is it time to crank down the volume at concerts?". The Independent. Retrieved 2020-07-11.
  2. Kreps, Daniel. “Led Zeppelin II” Turns 40. Rolling Stone
  3. Jason Ankeny. "Deep Purple". Allmusic. Retrieved 2011-12-24.
  4. McWhirter, Ross (1975). Guinness Book of World Records (14 ed.). Sterling Pub. Co. p. 242. ISBN 978-0-8069-0012-4.
  5. Matt Ashare (1999-06-08). "Total Death of Loud: Guitar Wolf, Atari Teenage Riot: louder than bombs". The Village Voice.
  6. "Manowar Bio". The Gauntlet. Retrieved 2008-09-24.
  7. Dawk Sound Limited. "Manowar's Unofficial Founding Member". Archived from the original on 2012-06-28.
  8. "Manowar's History". MetalYOU.
  9. Jose Fritz. "Bright Channel: Flight Approved Records". Ear To The Tracks. Planetary Group, LLC.
  10. Phil Brodie. "UK & WORLD Record Holders". Archived from the original on 2011-07-15. Retrieved 2007-01-07.
  11. "The World's Loudest Band, Manowar Kicks It Up a Notch with Meyer Sound and Westfalen Sound". Meyer Sound Laboratories Inc. Archived from the original on 2008-09-26. Retrieved 2008-09-24.
  12. Scott Cohen, "Motorhead is the Loudest Band on Earth", Spin 1, no. 10 (February 1986): 36 ISSN 0886-3032.
  13. "Leftfield Interview". February 2011. Archived from the original (24) on July 6, 2011. Retrieved March 14, 2011.
  14. "Gallows become the world's loudest band!". Kerrang! magazine. June 2007. Archived from the original (21) on June 26, 2007. Retrieved July 15, 2007.
  15. "MANOWAR Kicks It Up a Notch with Meyer Sound and Westfalen Sound". antiMusic. Archived from the original on 2008-09-15. Retrieved 2008-10-19.
  16. "Bluesfest 2009: Bigger, wetter, quieter. It was 'definitely a successful year'". Ottawa Citizen. July 20, 2009. Archived from the original on June 12, 2012. Retrieved July 20, 2010.
  17. http://www.handboka.no/Kvasyb/Veiled/At/stoykons.htm%5B%5D; in Norwegian
  18. Norsk Standard NS 8178:20014; Acoustic criteria for rooms and spaces for music rehearsal and performance; in Norwegian
  19. Prevention Guidelines for Exposure Time for Continuous Decibels; http://www.stuartxchange.org/Noise.html
  20. http://www.cirrusresearch.co.uk/blog/2015/04/noise-at-work-regulations-10-years-on/
  21. Karl French (2000-09-22). "The A-Z of Spinal Tap". The Guardian.
  22. "Eleven". Spinal Tap A to Zed.

Further reading
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