ATHENS, Ohio -- If older people don't like rock music, it may have more to do with the physiology of aging rather than generational differences, according to studies at Ohio University.
"As we get older, our tolerance for loudness is lower," says Donald Fucci, a professor of hearing and speech sciences.
Fucci's studies suggest that some older people physically can't tolerate the auditory extremes that rock music offers. For younger generations, it's the opposite, he says.
"In the case of children, it's been found that they aren't restricted by adult categories," he says. "They see music as a part of the environment with no particular characteristics at all, and they love to go to extremes."
Fucci currently is studying children's perceptions of rock music. He also has studied the auditory perceptions of the elderly, as well as differences in responses to rock music between males and females.
In his latest study, published in a recent issue of Perceptual and Motor Skills, he found that senior citizens rated rock music much higher on a loudness scale than younger people. For the study, he tested 10 people age 18 to 21 and 10 people ranging in age from 51 to 58.
"With older people, you can actually see them squinching from the music," Fucci says. "They say it hurts their ears."
Researchers asked participants to rate the loudness of rock music played at nine intensities, ranging from 10 decibels to 90 decibels. Normal conversation is about 60 decibels, and 130 decibels nears the threshold of pain in which ears start to burn and hearing can be damaged. Live rock music often is played at 130 decibels, Fucci says.
Participants listened to the rock song "Heartbreaker" by Led Zeppelin for 10 seconds at different intensities. At each intensity, the older subjects gave the music higher numerical ratings based on loudness than the younger subjects.
"Even if you had a really low intensity, the older adults gave higher numbers right off the bat," Fucci says.
As many people age, they develop a common hearing loss condition, called presbycusis, in which hearing gradually deteriorates and certain sounds become distorted. The elderly's perception of high frequencies diminishes, and low frequencies -- like the bass and drums of rock music -- are magnified.
"When older people lose the high frequencies, they hear a distortion, which resembles sound from an Edison phonograph more than sound from a high-quality stereo," Fucci says. "With rock music, they still are hearing the low frequencies, and the beat and rhythm knocks their heads off."
Although physiological changes affect people's hearing as they age, emotion also plays a role in auditory perception, he says. In previous studies, Fucci has found that if people dislike a certain type of music, they're naturally going to perceive it as being uncomfortably loud.
All the participants in Fucci's study, both young and old, said they disliked rock music. Fucci suspects, however, that the older subjects were more annoyed by the music probably because they didn't grow up listening to it.
"I think there's an irritational factor with older people toward rock music," he says. "Most don't like it and aren't expected to like it. These subjects just didn't like the rock music at any level."
The research on senior citizen perceptions was co-authored by Linda Petrosino, professor of hearing and speech at Bowling Green State University, and Doug McColl, a graduate student in hearing and speech sciences at Ohio University. Fucci holds an appointment in the College of Health and Human Services.
Attention reporters and editors: The journal article on which this news release is based is available by calling Melissa Rake at 740-593-1891 or Kim Walker at 740-593-0849.
Journal
Perceptual and Motor Skills