Pete Townshend warns iPod users
Taking a break from researching child pornography, Pete Townshend has issued an ominous warning for iPod users.
Hearing loss is a terrible thing because it cannot be repaired. If you use an iPod or anything like it, or your child uses one, you MAY be OK. It may only be studio earphones that cause bad damage. I only have long experience of the studio side of things (though I’ve listened to music for pleasure on earphones for years, long before the Walkman was introduced). But my intuition tells me there is terrible trouble ahead. The computer is now central to our world. If downloading has a real downside it may not be the fact that musicians will get their music stolen - in truth, they appear quite ready to give it away for nothing. The downside may be that on our computers - for privacy, for respect to family and co-workers, and for convenience - we use earphones at almost every stage of interaction with sound.
Thanks, Pete, for reminding us that loud noises are bad for your hearing.
Actually, I think the most interesting part of Pete’s journal entry is the fact that his hearing loss was caused by studio headphones. I think that his well-publicized troubles were generally attributed to playing live music, but he states that everybody else playing in the ’70s was just as loud.
