The thought that this condition could become more severe or worse, permanent, rattled him sufficiently that he immediately took steps to protect his hearing during performances.
In the video Andrea and I watched, Dude proposed an experiment. He had a tone generator that he would gradually step up from 20 to 20,000 hertz (Hz), the normal range of human hearing. He stipulated he would progress through the entire test frequency range in a single take and, most importantly, would keep the volume constant.
The video caught my attention because I was lectured decades ago by Navy flight surgeons that I had already sustained a high frequency hearing loss. I'd spent a grueling afternoon with their audiologist chasing phantom tones in the confines of a test booth. Afterwards, they emphatically stressed I take steps to prevent its progression lest it become a factor in my fitness to serve.
To this day I'm pretty fastidious about hearing protection. But I was curious about how I'd fare in this impromptu test. As Dude began in the lower frequencies, I was good to go. However, about midway through the scale, the tones starting getting softer and softer and then - silence. My first assumption was the video stalled. I turned to Andrea, "Wait, can you still hear that?"
"Uh-huh. Why? Can't you?"
I shook my head and muttered a quiet ffs under my breath. With the rise in Hz, there were discrete frequencies that would pop in and then fade away as the range continued higher.
There was nothing earth shattering with the results. I experienced what I expected, but it was still a bit unnerving to hear it play out in front of me.
Medical literature says this high frequency drop out is a well known condition and normal as people age. I've even seen articles about certain municipalities using this property of the audio spectrum to shoo away Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha loiterers from certain public areas.
These localities piped high pitched tones into targeted zones, and while these proved shrilling and annoying enough to drive off the younger crowd, the sound was ignored with impunity by those who had achieved several more decades of circumnavigating the sun.
I noticed in recent years I've taken to relying on closed captions for TV shows quite a bit. I was happy to blame on screen actors for constantly mumbling their lines or directors for cranking the incidental sounds and soundtrack too loudly for the scene.
Based on the results from Dude's impromptu test, I guess I have to own up to the fact that the problem is me. I'm reminded of a tongue in cheek acronym used in the IT support field - PICNIC - used to describe a self-inflicted user issue: Problem In Chair, Not In Computer.
I give myself a little more grace when it comes to song lyrics because I'm convinced being unintelligible was the singer's or songwriter's goal. Iron Butterfly's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" immediately comes to mind, as do a number of ditties from Mr. Osbourne, and practically anything death metal.
They're a far cry from death metal, but I still had a hard time with Pearl Jam. The first time I heard "Yellow Ledbetter", I thought, "Cool! Someone wrote lyrics for Kenny Wayne Shepherd's 'Why We Cry'!" I quickly learned two things.
For one, despite the lyrical similarities, they were different songs. For another, people may act like they're singing along, but no one really knows what in blazes Eddie Vedder is saying. Even with cranking the volume and closed captions scrolling across the screen, I still had a hard time following along.
As technology advances, allowing us to test our hearing from the comfort of our homes or drive away loitering teens with high-frequency sounds, one thing remains clear: our hearing is precious and worth protecting. While I may have lost some of the higher frequencies, it gave me a lifelong appreciation for the need and importance of hearing protection.
Maybe one day, AI and cerebral implants will be able to provide real time decryption of Eddie Vedder's lyrics. Until then, I'll keep my earplugs handy and enjoy the music – intelligible or not.
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