NationStates Jolt Archive

Pete Townshend Warns iPod Users


Published January 4, 2006, 11:34 AM CST


LONDON -- Guitarist Pete Townshend has warned iPod users that they could end up with hearing problems as bad as his own if they don't turn down the volume of the music they are listening to on earphones.

Townshend, 60, guitarist in the 60s band The Who, said his hearing was irreversibly damaged by years of using studio headphones and that he now is forced to take 36-hour breaks between recording sessions to allow his ears to recover.

"I have unwittingly helped to invent and refine a type of music that makes its principal components deaf," he said on his Web site. "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 ... But my intuition tells me there is terrible trouble ahead."

Referring to the increasingly popular practice of downloading music from the Internet, Townshend said: "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."

The Who rock group was famous for its earsplitting live performances, but Townshend said his problem was caused by using earphones in the recording studio.

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On the Net:

http://www.petetownshend.co.uk

Who'd a thunk it? Maybe that's why I run away from the vaccuum. :rolleyes:

Townshend, 60, guitarist in the 60s band The Who, said his hearing was irreversibly damaged by years of using studio headphones
I thought his hearing was damages by the whole exploding-drumkit incident?

I thought his hearing was damages by the whole exploding-drumkit incident?

No, that's just a very prevalent myth.

It probably has nothing to do with performing innumerable shows next to speaker sets bigger than a dresser.

But he is right, some people need to turn their music the fuck down.

Waiting to board the plane on the way home from Minnesota, some guy walked up with an iPod. I knew it was an iPod because of the tale-tale ear buds, let me reiterate for future reference: ear buds. I was in my seat, a good eight feet away listening to my music, but I only had one of my ear buds in - in the ear facing the direction he was in.

I could hear his music.

It probably has nothing to do with performing innumerable shows next to speaker sets bigger than a dresser.
Less than driving high-frequency, high volume sound directly into the tympanic membrane...

I'm a metal musician. My father is a blues/rock musician, as were nearly all of his friends. Growing up I can't tell you how many times I heard the phrase "huh? could you speak up?" It gets to be kind of a joke around loud musicians, everyone is half deaf. I think it's kinda funny that Townshend blames it on his studio head phones, its like a smoker complaining he got lung cancer not because of cigarettes, but because he slept over in a girlfriend's appartment that had asbestos a few times.

Seriously, ever seen the old stacks The Who used? Ever been in front of a drumkit and three guys playing through half-stacks on stage? Even with ear-protection it can be brutal, and don't get me started on those goddamned commercial practice spaces...feedback in a 12x12 concrete room is painful. Thats part of the life, it is a risk you accept to do something that you love. And whats this crap about being an "unwitting particiapnt" Pete? Thats just a lie. No way you can walk off stage with cotton in your ears and a amp buzz still ringing through your skull for days and not know what you're doing is dangerous...