Beat down
June 7, 2014 1:15 PM Subscribe
"Last week, Apple purchased Beats Music for $3 billion — the largest acquisition the company has ever made. With it, the company acquired Dr. Dre and longtime Interscope Geffen A&M Records executive Jimmy Iovine, the men behind Beats and a "sound revolution" who are actually doing irrevocable damage to our ability to appreciate music.
Beats' headphones have been flaunted in rap music videos and touted as expensive fashion accessories, creating a commercialized hip-hop culture that stems from the celebrity of Dre's production history. As a result, much of Beats' engineered appeal is in its emphasis on low, bass-heavy frequencies of the "Xxplosive" sort. It makes sense: Rap and hip-hop are often characterized by their heavy, booming bass lines. And while a human ear normally registers frequencies anywhere between 20 Hz and 20 kHz (or 20,000 Hz), the sub-bass sounds in rap songs, like a classic 808 drum kick, will range as low as 80 to 20 Hz. The lowest A on a piano, for example, vibrates somewhere around 25 Hz. In order to hear those notes, you have turn the volume way up."
Beats' headphones have been flaunted in rap music videos and touted as expensive fashion accessories, creating a commercialized hip-hop culture that stems from the celebrity of Dre's production history. As a result, much of Beats' engineered appeal is in its emphasis on low, bass-heavy frequencies of the "Xxplosive" sort. It makes sense: Rap and hip-hop are often characterized by their heavy, booming bass lines. And while a human ear normally registers frequencies anywhere between 20 Hz and 20 kHz (or 20,000 Hz), the sub-bass sounds in rap songs, like a classic 808 drum kick, will range as low as 80 to 20 Hz. The lowest A on a piano, for example, vibrates somewhere around 25 Hz. In order to hear those notes, you have turn the volume way up."
This post was deleted for the following reason: Double. -- restless_nomad
What?
posted by FJT at 1:21 PM on June 7, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by FJT at 1:21 PM on June 7, 2014 [1 favorite]
What?
If this wasn't snark, that was my reaction too. This is a classic high outrage low science or content hit piece.
And while a human ear normally registers frequencies anywhere between 20 Hz and 20 kHz (or 20,000 Hz), the sub-bass sounds in rap songs, like a classic 808 drum kick, will range as low as 80 to 20 Hz. The lowest A on a piano, for example, vibrates somewhere around 25 Hz. In order to hear those notes, you have turn the volume way up.
Maybe, but it all depends on the EQ, and the gain applied to that frequency range.
After this though, i'll give them a tiny cookie for positing that the EQ is set up as such that you need to increase your devices volume level/gain to get the frequencies above say, 150hz into an acceptable(for the end user who wants to listen at erm, "reference levels") range. Ok, i might buy what they're selling there but then i ran into this gem.
It's considered safe listening to music at 85 decibels or lower. Crank your Beats all the way up to their 115-decibel peak (the kind of volumes you might reach when on a loud train) and you could experience severe hearing loss after just 15 minutes of listening every day.
This is CLASSIC not-enough-detail news bullshit. 15 minutes a day for how long? what?
And the rest of it with the whole "and we just keep turning it up" is total fluff.
Crime: Clickbait. Sentence: Death. Where's judge Dredd when we need him?
Yes, there is an emphasis on the say, below 60hz range in the beats headphones. I've tried them. You're not going to go deaf "turning it up loud enough to hear the higher frequencies" unless you're the type who would already crank it to 11 anyways though. Which yea, is a problem, especially among middle/highschool kids even back when i was in that age range and ipods were just becoming a thing... but pinning it on beats is just, yea, total fucking clickbait. And this article has little to no actual substance. It's some unsubstantiated accusations, tidbits of "science", and some copy pasting from wikipedia about how the ear works.
posted by emptythought at 1:27 PM on June 7, 2014 [2 favorites]
If this wasn't snark, that was my reaction too. This is a classic high outrage low science or content hit piece.
And while a human ear normally registers frequencies anywhere between 20 Hz and 20 kHz (or 20,000 Hz), the sub-bass sounds in rap songs, like a classic 808 drum kick, will range as low as 80 to 20 Hz. The lowest A on a piano, for example, vibrates somewhere around 25 Hz. In order to hear those notes, you have turn the volume way up.
Maybe, but it all depends on the EQ, and the gain applied to that frequency range.
After this though, i'll give them a tiny cookie for positing that the EQ is set up as such that you need to increase your devices volume level/gain to get the frequencies above say, 150hz into an acceptable(for the end user who wants to listen at erm, "reference levels") range. Ok, i might buy what they're selling there but then i ran into this gem.
It's considered safe listening to music at 85 decibels or lower. Crank your Beats all the way up to their 115-decibel peak (the kind of volumes you might reach when on a loud train) and you could experience severe hearing loss after just 15 minutes of listening every day.
This is CLASSIC not-enough-detail news bullshit. 15 minutes a day for how long? what?
And the rest of it with the whole "and we just keep turning it up" is total fluff.
Crime: Clickbait. Sentence: Death. Where's judge Dredd when we need him?
Yes, there is an emphasis on the say, below 60hz range in the beats headphones. I've tried them. You're not going to go deaf "turning it up loud enough to hear the higher frequencies" unless you're the type who would already crank it to 11 anyways though. Which yea, is a problem, especially among middle/highschool kids even back when i was in that age range and ipods were just becoming a thing... but pinning it on beats is just, yea, total fucking clickbait. And this article has little to no actual substance. It's some unsubstantiated accusations, tidbits of "science", and some copy pasting from wikipedia about how the ear works.
posted by emptythought at 1:27 PM on June 7, 2014 [2 favorites]
http://www.metafilter.com/138959/Get-on-my-lawn
posted by polyhedron at 1:27 PM on June 7, 2014
posted by polyhedron at 1:27 PM on June 7, 2014
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This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
As for the hearing damage angle, there's plenty of other sources for that, and by that token your below-the-fold almost appears as a screed against bass as a compositional feature of music, which is ridiculous.
Lastly, fashion accessories are always built cheaply because replacement aids the trend cycle.
posted by rhizome at 1:20 PM on June 7, 2014