Motorhead

The Clarion-Ledger reported a scientific study on hearing loss at concerts. Dr. David A. Opperman of the University of Minnesota's department of Otolaryngology led an experiment in which he and his colleagues assigned 29 men and women, ranging in age from 17 to 59, to sit in various sections of concert halls. The participants attended concerts featuring heavy metal, pop or rockabilly music. Two people were placed in each location ? up front, left of the stage, right of the stage, or far away from the stage. One person in each location wore earplugs while the other did not.

Before the concert, each participant took an audiogram, which measured their hearing. Each participant registered normal or close to it on the hearing threshold. The study reported after the concerts, when audiograms were given again, 64 percent of those not wearing earplugs had notable hearing thresholds shift, in which they couldn't hear a sound as soft as they could before the concert, compared to 27 percent of those wearing earplugs.

Opperman stated, "A threshold shift is a decrease in the ability to hear as represented on an audiogram," Opperman said. "The ability to hear before the show was better than the ability afterwards."

The shifts occurred regardless of seat location or type of music. "The genre of music doesn't seem to matter," said Opperman. "The misconception that heavy metal is worse than pop puts the people at the pop concert at more risk."

So when your parents tell you you're gonna ruin your hearing listening to "that hard metal," tell them to turn down their Oldies.