Whether it’s the smell of the Greggs’ factory, snorting lines through a rolled up $20, or staring at multiple screens for hours on end at the library, students are accustomed to abusing their senses on the regular. Putting your body through the wringer is part of the university experience, embodying a “work hard, play hard” mantra that would make The Wolf of Wall Street proud. Like Leonardo DiCaprio’s character, the long-term consequences hardly warrant a thought – ear health included.
Music and gigs are a quintessential part of the ‘Otago experience’, but rubbing shoulders with a blaring speaker and yelling in your mates’ ears to be heard comes at a cost to your audiological health. Like a blocked nose, taringas tend to be taken for granted until the discomfort becomes all-encompassing – seawater sloshing around in there after a day at St Kilda, a blocked ear from your flight home, or a persistent ringing courtesy of Pint Night.
For some of Dunedin’s die-hards for the doof, both past and present, the damage is real. Critic Te Ārohi went down a rabbit hole so deep that we’re about to hit bedrock.
First, An Ear-xplainer
Imagine you’re front row at a gig for your favourite band. The first note plays, and the atmosphere is electric. You can feel the bass in your bones, the melody piercing your ears. But what is actually going on? Your taringas are responsible for two key things: hearing (audiology) and balance (vestibular health), although some overlap exists between the two. An audiologist is a trained medical professional who treats conditions relating to hearing and balance. Critic Te Ārohi spoke with Professor Grant Searchfield, the head of the University of Auckland’s Audiology department, who explained how it all works.
Much like how a juicy bit of tea spreads from person-to-person in your friend group, your ears perceive sound by transmitting messages from one part to the other. First sound waves – technically ‘disturbances of energy’ – vibrate through the environment, reaching your ears and vibrating your ear drum. These vibrations get transferred to ossicles, three small bones in your ear, which send them to your inner ear (a whispering chain or a rumour as it makes it out of your inner circle). Within your inner ear, small hair cells called stereocilia turn these into electrical signals that your nervous system sends to your brain, which is then received as ‘sound’.
This same system is responsible for your balance. Within the inner ear are fluid-filled canals, which move around hairs lining the canal. Your nervous system interprets the moving of hairs to determine whether the body feels balanced or not. Rocking your head up and down to a song shifts the fluid around, which may lead to dizziness (if it’s a particularly rowdy song, and especially if you’re drunk). Joe’s Garage floors have been declared public enemy number one at successive 21sts for just this reason.
The ‘loudness’ of a sound is measured in decibels (dB). This is a logarithmic scale, meaning a 10dB sound is ten times more intense than a 1dB sound. 0dB marks the faintest sound someone with typical hearing could pick up, and the intensity only increases from there. Decibels are like walking up the stairs in your flat while drunk. Each subsequent step seems ten times higher than the last one. Once you’re near the top of the staircase, it begins to take a toll on your body.
In the modern world, everything seems to be noisy. For a university student, you may walk to campus, headphones blaring, walking past traffic and roadworks, before attending class in a loud but confined space. “Noise is the number one injury associated with university-age folks’ [hearing],” explains Professor Searchfield. While it's clear being next to the speakers at a gig may not be ideal for your ears, at what point are things “too loud”? A good rule of thumb, according to Grant, is that if you can hear someone talking to you that is an arm's length (or a metre) away, the background noise level is unlikely to be potentially damaging.
Generally, a normal conversation is about 60dB. Above 70dB and it may become uncomfortable to the ear, but not damaging in short doses (like a washing machine or your flattie’s headboard when their sneaky link comes round). Above 100dB (live music or car horns), you’re getting into dangerous territory; this is where hearing damage can be caused in mere minutes. Once you get above 120dB (explosions or gunshots), instant hearing damage can occur. Remember that a concert at 110dB would be 1011 times more intense than a 1dB sound – that’s 100 billion times more stress on your ears than the faintest possible sound (the creak of the hallway letting you know the sneaky link isn't allowed to stay for cuddles).
With the ears containing the smallest bones in your body, it is a delicate and precise system. It’s easy to imagine how persistent trips to gigs may mess this system up, even when you’re young. Constant exposure to levels that leave your ears ringing can have a lasting effect. The magic that exists in the atmosphere of a mosh or feeling the bass pump through your body is undeniable, but just like listening to your body on a night out, the same needs to be done for your ears.
Was the Dunedin Sound Too Loud?
Throbbing ears were the sign of a good gig in the ‘90s when Donella and Michael were students. Both were in the thick of the Ōtepoti live music and party scene at the height of the Dunedin Sound era – Donella a groupie, Michael a musician. The happily married couple met in 1989 at Studholme College during their first year of study, and their daughter now attends Otago University, having grown up to stories of the iconic gigs of The Chills and Sneaky Feelings. This time has been permanently embedded in their mind, body, and soul – and ears. Michael now suffers from tinnitus, a condition causing constant ringing in your ears, and Donella wears hearing aids.
A Christchurch-born shoegaze and noise rock band called Bailter Space would often play gigs around Ōtepoti during Donella and Micheal's time as students – gigs they seldom missed – and volume was used as a method of “exploring sonic space,” as Michael describes it. Rolling her eyes at her husband's description, Donella adds that the band was so ear-burstingly loud that you couldn't even hear the music. Micheal: "But at the same time we loved it, right?” Donella: "No, I hated it."
Michael contributed to this ear-bursting scene himself. Outside of his Law and Psychology degree, he was a musician in multiple bands. His most successful projects at the time were post-punk and shoegaze bands named Pumpkin Ocean and Oglala, the latter of which held the top song on Radio One's top 11 chart for 41 weeks. Michael reckons he’s played just about every venue in Ōtepoti, with an impressive list including long-running bar The Crown Hotel; the now dormant nightclub and concert hall Sammy’s; still-kicking Union Hall; and even the backyard of Grant Robertson’s flat for the future Vice-Chancellor's 21st birthday party.
But the golden era of Michael’s student stardom came at the price of his ear health, now suffering from a chronic case of tinnitus, the most common auditory condition associated with loud noises. Michael blames constant exposure to loud music as the main cause. Temporary or chronic exposure to loud noises can damage the hairs of your inner ear, which may fire incorrect nerve signals to the brain, causing ringing to be heard when there is none. These hair cells cannot regenerate if destroyed, so lifetime exposure to loud noises can turn tinnitus into a chronic, incurable condition like Michael’s.
Tinnitus can be temporary or a permanent condition, particularly in older people. The most common experience rangatahi have with tinnitus is temporary ringing in the ears the night after an evening at the Pint Night barricade which, like a hangover, tends to go away in a day or two with some R&R. Just as you would swear “I’m never drinking again” in the pits of a dusty Sunday, temporary tinnitus should be taken as a warning sign, with repeat offenses putting you at risk of cumulative damage. For someone like Michael, the ringing is now constant. He describes it as “unpleasant and frustrating,” and it’s at its worst when he tries to go to sleep. He equates the feeling to the need to wear prescription glasses: he can still go about his day, but with lessened sense.
For Donella, the souvenir she carries from her headbanging days comes in the form of hearing aids. Though Donella didn’t play in a band herself, she was still heavily involved in Ōtepoti’s music scene as an avid gig and party-goer, taking full advantage of having a rockstar boyfriend. At the age of 54, the Social Anthropology and Māori studies graduate has the hearing you'd expect of a 70-year-old. Though she is not deaf, Donella struggles to hear noises at certain pitches and often finds it difficult to distinguish consonants from one another. The hearing loss affects not only Donella, but those around her too. With her constantly having to ask everyone to repeat themselves, it creates frustration on both sides, something Michael confirms with a nod. Her audiologist said that Donella's hearing was likely worsened by listening to loud music.
Donella isn't constantly glued to these aids, taking breaks at home, for instance – hoping no snide comments are made under her family’s breath. For activities such as going out to restaurants, however, going without her hearing aids can be socially isolating. The voices of her friends squealing from the other end of the table is easily drowned out by the hum of dishes clinging, chefs yelling, and patrons loudly laughing at their own jokes. Work is another environment where they’re vital for her ability to function normally, not wanting to miss any important information on the job.
Industry Standard
Donella and Michael’s hearing damage reads like a horror story to students who love to crank up the volume of their favourite tunes. Love for loud live music is encoded in our bodies, with Professor Searchfield noting to Critic that loud noises even stimulate your vestibular system. But it’s important to note that the level alone isn’t necessarily going to cause hearing loss down the line. What makes noise-induced hearing loss complicated is that it's the result of two things: both the level and duration of a sound. While we know sounds over 120dB are likely to be instantly damaging to our ears, continuous exposure to quieter sounds has the potential to have the same effect on the hair cells within our ears.
Advances in technology mean it’s easier than ever to have loud, prolonged exposure to music. The combination of portable music and headphones means that music can be listened to practically for an infinite period of time, with nothing forcing you to take a break or turn down the music. Professor Searchfield contrasted this to his university days when students would listen to tapes, Walkmans, CDs; all forms of music that didn’t allow the continuous stream of music modern day students have access to. And if you’re a musician who practises constantly, performs at a gig, then listens to loud music the whole way home, that’s a far more likely scenario for cumulative damage than someone quietly typing away to their study playlist for a few hours in Central.
Live music is not as dangerous as other recreational activities which may involve persistent exposure to loud music. The nature of gigs – changing of songs, band chat and applause – give your ears a break from the worst-of-worst decibels you hear each night. The mixing of loud-to-quiet-to-loud across a gig delays the cumulative ability of noise damage. Duration of exposure is the biggest concern for live music. “You can imagine that going to a gig once for a couple of hours is safer than, say, working at the venue all week,” said Searchfield.
The industry has clued into the dangers of hearing loss, it seems. Hunched over the bar at The Crown, a keen eye might notice specs of fluorescent orange sticking out of ears of audio technicians, bar-tenders, and musicians under the dim lights: ear plugs. They're commonly used as a workplace tool to protect your hearing from loud noises. Whether it’s a tradie on the tools, in a DoC Hut to block out snorers or at a concert, foam ear plugs are the forefront tool in our arsenal to protect your ears.
Punter Protection
For punters at gigs and concerts, however, foam ear plugs are a less common sight than those in the industry. While the bright colours may make them easier to find in a bag or workplace, they detract from the aesthetic of carefully-crafted concert fits. They’re also fairly uncomfortable, due to most being one-size-fits-all, as well as being easy to notice in your ears, distracting you from the konohete ōpaki (gig) you came to see. And while they block out the loudest noises, it makes it hard to hear your mates between songs when the sound dies down.
For one former punter-turned-DJ, Bella*, they were vital to her ability to partake in Dunedin’s music scene while protecting her hearing. Bella completed her undergrad at the end of last year and, much like Michael and Donella, her university experience was underpinned by a passion for gigs. Suffering from a perforated eardrum, the health of her hearing was at the top of her priorities – and she owes it all to earplugs. Bella shared with Critic Te Ārohi how she got to be such an advocate for ear health.
Like many Otago students, a typical week for Bella in third-year was a full calendar of social events: Pint Night on Wednesday, a boogie at Carousel or Pequeño's Jazz Night on Thursday, and either (another) 21st on Friday or Saturday (followed by a trip to the Octagon, of course). She lives to tell the tale of how she was still a 365 party girl, going out four to five times a week with a perforated eardrum, without worsening her hearing.
So what does a perforated eardrum mean? The eardrum acts as a natural barrier, blocking bacteria, water, and debris from reaching your middle and inner ear. The tissue blockade also acts as a shock absorber for sound waves. A hole in the eardrum is like one of your flatmates leaving for exchange: it breaks up an extremely codependent and delicate system. The protective barrier is weakened, making it much harder for the inner ear to dampen and regulate these noises. Bella needs to be careful because chronic exposure to loud noises or a sudden loud blast could lead to temporary or unrecoverable deafness. Bella’s perforation also led to eczema forming around her ear, making her extremely prone to infections.
Bella’s ear perforated in her first year at halls in 2022. She recounted how this happened in detail to Critic, causing a wince or two. She first noticed that something was awry when working out to music at Jetts, her usual gym. Her right ear began to hurt but she didn’t think much of it at first. "It was one of those really small pains that you kind of just ignore," she said. After her workout sesh, Bella trekked up the hill back to her hall. By the time that she reached her room, the pain had become bad enough that she told one of the Kaiāwhina Whare's (sub-wardens).
The Kaiāwhina Bella confided in was a pharmacy student who assumed it was an earwax issue. Based on an urban myth that olive oil helps to unblock earwax build-up – an unproven and under-researched remedy, by the way – they poured some olive oil into Bella’s ear in a worrying practice of unqualified medical advice. The oil didn’t do the trick. In fact, it made the pain worse. Just over an hour later, Bella felt a massive pop. She compared it to getting shot. Wobbly on her feet from a combination of serious pain and ear-induced imbalance, and unable to hear anything in her right ear, one of Bella’s friends had to help her to walk down to the hospital. You would have thought an Uber would be the best bet, but she apparently didn’t want to disturb the drivers – a “naive and dumb idea” she said on reflection.
A doctor explained to Bella that her right eardrum must have ruptured at the gym while she lay bumped up on painkillers in a hospital bed. "I was probably drooling all over myself," Bella recalled with embarrassment. A ruptured eardrum can be caused by ear infections, sudden pressure changes, loud blasts (though uncommon), and physical trauma. But it is unclear what caused Bella’s one to burst. The deafness that Bella was experiencing was said to be conductive hearing loss which happens when sounds can’t reach your inner ear. Though conductive hearing loss is not permanent it can last for months at a time. Sadly for Bella this would be a reoccurring issue. It may come back even after her ruptured eardrum has healed. Bella was also instructed to be careful as she was now prone to getting tinnitus or sensorineural hearing damage, inner ear damage that will not regenerate.
One of Bella’s friends gifted her a set of drummer’s ear plugs, which became her secret weapon. “I basically just heard a muffled noise,” she says. Armed with the little set of foam buds, Bella was determined not to let her vulnerable ear get in the way of a good time. "I would still go out whenever I wanted, except I would wear earplugs," says Bella, seeing her condition as "just something that [she was] going to have to deal with." Her friends provided a vital support network for her, getting down on the dancefloor a comfortable distance away from the speakers, and ditching to the back of the mosh or grabbing a drink in a quiet room if it ever became too loud (twist my arm). If the music ever got too loud to the point that her ears started hurting, Bella wasn’t going to risk it: “I was so scared of it happening again, I never want to feel that pain ever again.”
To DJ or Not to DJ?
Bella’s determination not to let the perforation impact her nightlife extended beyond her experience as a crowd member. Last year, she entered the artist scene, when her DJ persona was born. Unlike most students who hunkered down to buy a pair of decks thinking they’d be the next big thing, she actually scored herself a gig: a Future DJ competition at U-Bar. It’s a gig hosted annually by OUSA to see who has got the talent, and who is just making a racket.
In a bout of shit timing, Bella woke up a few days before her big break completely deaf in her right ear, a hangover from the perforation two years earlier. She checked into Student Health who, after running a series of tests, assured her that it wouldn’t be permanent. Bella had a case of conductive hearing loss, one of the long-term symptoms of a healed eardrum. The hearing loss lasted over two months, during which time Bella’s friends made sure to talk to her left ear, while the Uni’s Disability Information and Support Services provided note-takers and lecture recordings.
Bella was left with a choice: to DJ or not to DJ? “This is my final year at Otago, so I’m never going to get an opportunity like this again,” she recalled thinking. So she seized the spotlight and went for it anyway. There also weren’t many women on the lineup so she felt obligated to “do it for the girls.” Her hearing made it difficult to determine when to transition each song, and while she admitted that there were probably one or two transitions that didn’t sound that good, she wound up placing in the top three. “To walk away saying that I [still] did it with hearing loss in one ear [...] made me feel pretty cool,” she concluded with a smile.
Barriers to Earplugs
Outside of ear muffs – which is a bit besides the point – ear plugs offer the best protection for your taringas. But this can be a tough pill to swallow for frequent concert-goers trying to protect their ears given their impracticality and, frankly, ugliness. Bella understands the embarrassment which, much like trying to jam a helmet on a kid who’s “too cool”, seems to be the main factor deterring people from squeezing rubber buds into their canals.
Despite your hesitations, Bella encourages you to wear protection (no, not that kind). “In the grand scheme of things, no one is going to care if you have them in,” she said. She equates the feeling of first putting in earplugs to first entering a gym. At first it feels like everyone is staring at you or judging you. But then you realize that nobody gives a shit, and everyone is too self conscious to care if you look like an idiot. Apply this logic to a gig: no one cares enough to judge people for wearing earplugs. And if so, Bella retorts, “Why are you looking at people’s ears? That’s so weird.”
A few companies have noticed these shortfalls when it comes to hearing protection at gigs, developing products that are tailored for the music scene, both practically and aesthetically. In Aotearoa, the two biggest brands are Sets and Loops. Both brands offer sleek-looking ear plugs that are designed to fit your ears comfortably and discreetly. These provide a more attractive, but expensive, option to rangatahi – starting prices are both around $35. In a time where tickets to a gig, an outfit, and box quickly add up, many people will be apprehensive to drop even more money on earplugs when they have gone their whole life without them and felt “fine”. Professor Searchfield’s advice was that any protection was better than nothing. A pharmacy pair would suffice as a cheap alternative to the more expensive brands and would be better than toilet paper or cotton wool stuffed in your ear (his words).
Overall, your health should trump all else. Bella’s advice to frequent town enjoyers is this: “Look after yourself so that you can keep going out in the future.” Micheal and Donella concurred. Earplugs were around during the early ‘90s when they were students but didn’t think that they fitted into their pocket of culture. Donella wishes that she had the resources and information available about hearing protection that we have today: "We weren't told anything." She understands how bulletproof it feels to be young. "You don't understand at that age your mortality and how fragile you are."
Imparting wisdom to current students in the live music scene, Micheal implores students to continue to seek out loud music and have fun but “just wear earplugs, it's real easy." Michael himself owns a stylish pair of Alpine MusicSafe earplugs that he carries in a day bag. "So if I could have had my time again, I would have worn earplugs the whole time," said Michael. Nodding, Donella added, "And I wouldn't have gone to see Belter Space." The couple gifted their two university-aged children earplugs when they first started going to gigs. All they can do is hope that she remembers to take them to Pint Night.
Yarns with Donna, Micheal, and Bella show that despite being easy to forget, your ear health can take a nosedive in an instant. What makes the Otago experience so special also happens to be so loud – Highlanders games, Hyde Street, and Castle hosts included. Much like what Mum says to you before a night out, “Any [hearing] protection is good protection.” It’s the sentiment Critic has heard from Professor Searchfield and others time and time again. The next time you find yourself on the dance floor, rocking some ear-plugs might just save you one less dusty part of your body the morning after.
The Doof-o-Meter
After speaking to Professor Searchfield, Bella, Michael and Donella, a curious Critic Te Ārohi got our hands on a digital sound level meter and measured the locations one writer found himself in throughout the week.
Richardson Law Library
Average: 30dB (try-hard lawyers locking in) to 61dB (a thunderously typing keyboard warrior)
Equivalent: Leaves rustling
Risk of harm: None
Central Library
Average: 44dB (y’all have really gotta quit yapping)
Equivalent to: Hyde Street on a dusty Sunday morning
Risk of harm: None
Mr Fox Smokers Area
Average: 88dB (a cheeky cig goes hand in hand with passionate yarns)
Equivalent to: A blender
Risk of harm: 4 hours of noise at this level over the course of a week can lead to hearing damage
Bar Area at Pint Night
Average: 90dB (have fun bumping into your lab dem while enjoying a pint at an inflated price)
Equivalent to: A running lawn mower
Risk of Harm: 2 hours of exposure to this noise level can cause hearing damage
Radio One Office Live to Air
Average: 90dB (the mighty scream of Caribou frontman Mario)
Equivalent to: Using your hairdryer
Risk of harm: 2 hours of exposure to this noise level can cause hearing damage. Earplugs were handed out in anticipation
Carousel with DJ Risk
Average: 95dB (house bangers galore, bad day to be a dancefloor)
Equivalent to: A motorcycle
Risk of harm: 1 hour of noise at this level can lead to hearing damage
Band Area at Pint Night
Average: 103dB (heads were banging, PDA was occurring, while alt rock band Ammonita was providing the soundtrack)
Equivalent to: The cockpit of a helicopter
Risk of harm: 7.5 minutes of exposure to this noise level can lead to hearing damage