‘Loud’ and ‘good’ are not synonyms

AINE O’CONNOR

Time passes, age numbers rise and the codger-ification continues apace. Although the latest symptom has been in development for some time. I love music and appreciate the concept of ambient music and agree that it can add a degree of atmosphere to a location or event. But evidently there are very different opinions on the type and volume of music that add something, and on the difference between ambiance and pain in the ambiance.

At a concert, I’m perfectly happy to have the volume higher than that of the people I’m with. That’s what we’re there for, we can chat later. But anywhere else, if I have to roar at my friends, or lip read, I tend to think the balance is off.

Some restaurants can have odd acoustics. The noise of customer chat is loud and that’s not a bad thing, that is ambiance. Adding music in that case, however, especially when it’s a little too loud, really? This seemed advisable? Or maybe there is no acoustic issue, the background volume is just too high. You know when you have to concentrate to hear your company instead of the song? Or when your waiter has to lean in to hear all the orders, or in shops when the sales assistant has to keep asking you to repeat yourself because they can’t hear you over the music, am I alone in thinking that’s not ambiance, it’s noise?

Or you’re having a drink and they bring out the band. Your pleasant evening becomes somewhere you can’t hear or be heard by the people you chose to go out with, you can’t even place an order without sign language because the band is playing at nine millions decibels. And all because someone missed the memo about how, in regards to singing, “loud” and “good” are not synonyms. Or am I just a codger?