I used to be a bartender but this is something I never noticed. Thanks for sharing.

You have to wonder - do bars which play loud music induce people to drink more or do people who want to get utterly plastered prefer places with louder music ?

Alcohol deadens the sensitivity of the little hairs in your hearing to register information, or it dulls the brain end of the connection. In any case, drinking makes it harder to hear and have you ever been to a place with a lot of drunk people almost shouting at each other, with or without loud music ? Perhaps it is because alcohol deadens the auditory system that drunks like these places - it gives them an excuse for not being able to hear you without having to admit they are drunk.

Personally, I don’t drink. I do like loud music, though, sometimes.

:)

Hey Aneez,

if you say:

I shall brook no intolerance here

isn’t that an another form of intolerance ?

heh heh, couldn’t resist that. :P

Very good point Graeme, I also realized that when i was a bartender and a hard drinker at one time.

When you get drunk its harder to hear. Alcohol seems to deaden a lot of things which is why its easy to get into an accident while drunk

its easy to get into an accident while drunk

Oh yeah. I had someone try to kick me to death when I was a little bit too drunk once. Accidents, criminal injury, unwanted pregnancy, assaults, etc...

I find alcohol to be perhaps the most sinister of the drugs available... perhaps not as overtly ”evil” as, say, crystal meth, but certainly responsible for much of the harm that goes on in our societies and all the more sinister as it is legitimate. I now feel that alcohol is nothing less than a licence to be a d**khead. Period.

@ Babbs

Hey, I used to be a patron of these bars sometimes back, for a brief period though. But even I didn’t find any such correlation between loud music and too much drinking.

In fact, I have my own theory in this regards which goes as under;

As you have pointed out, when one gets drunk, the eardrums experience technical faults and send an SOS signal to the brain. In this situation, a person sitting in a loud-music bar gets a message from the brain that he is experiencing some hearing problem. But, as the music is too loud, the customer gets confused because in spite of the technical fault experienced by his ears, he can still hear the music.

The customer gets an idea that he is getting wrong signals from his brains and tries hard to concentrate on the problem. Now the real game begins; he accuses his brain for misleading him and starts drinking more to prove it wrong. On the other hand, as the person gets more intoxicated, the brain starts sending stronger signals ”stop you d**khead, you are too drunk!”

This enrages the person and he shouts back ”shut up you retarded organ, I can hear every word of that song and I can feel each beat on that drum. Stop creating a nuisance, I know when to stop.”

So you see, its the limitations of the human brain that is the real reason behind this peculiar phenomenon.

OMG, Aneez its amazing to know that you can see the other side so well :) Are you Gifted with sixth and seven senses? lol

LOL! No Deepa, actually its got nothing to do with sixth or seventh sense :) I’m just exercising my right to arrive at conclusions that suits me the best.

After all, don’t we all do that? :P

BTW, I do have a very well-developed sixth sense. And I can sense that sweet smile on your face, followed by a slight tilting of your head! Am I right, or do I need to develop it a bit more? ;)

Lol....you are uber correct:) Please don’t work on developing it more.....or else you will achieve more than others can comfortably tolerate. lol

LOL! Do you know something about that phenomenon? The harder you press the spring, the more recoil velocity it gathers.

You better develop a repellent field of some sort around you :P

@ Graeme

I shall brook no intolerance here

You got it perfect Graeme ;)

You know, someone has to draw the lines; and the one who draws the line usually ends up with chalk on his hands.

BTW, I pray that your sobriety spell continues. And even if you decide to go for an occasional ride, avoid places with loud music. :P

Hey. Thanks.

This is a world with walls. That’s just the way it is. For whatever reason, they are there and some people need to arbitrate in certain contexts

Drunk people just strike me as silly, is all. My sobriety is more a matter of personal taste.

:)

Interesting conclusion - ‘They said it was not clear why louder music appeared to increase alcohol consumption but said it might make conversation more difficult, forcing people to drink more and talk less.’ I have never noticed this but I don’t really think that consumption has anything to do with the decibels.

You are right. Consumption has nothing to do with decibels. The increase in consumption is directly proportional to increased heartbeat, and vice versa.

Final conclusion: Drinking (whether less or more) is not affected by sound; it is influenced by the inner voice!

I hope the docs are not hearing me, or else they’ll have to do overtime to prove me wrong. ;)

Here is the first hand info.. The compulsive pub hopper that I am, (which is the reason I came to Bangalore) I also love good rock music. Let me tell you something, when I feel like drinking, I do so even without music. Loud music doesn’t have anything to do with increased consumption. Where loud music matters is at the rave parties. Party drugs like X etc give you that heady feeling when the rapid beats hit yr ears. And it is a nasty thing to do of course.