Usually when we think of “The Cold War”, we think of the fear surrounding communism, and the policy of containment. The only technology we are shown is that of the nuclear bomb. In class, we are informed of the ENIAC. The ENIAC was the first digitized computer that could track and predict missile trajectories. It is made of 19000 vacuum tubes, and could only produce a small amount of power (less than a smartphone today). With the creation of the ENIAC and vacuum tubes, scientist were able to expend an create ways to get information back and forth from once source to another, without any interruption. To get this, scientist would have to develop a way to increase the strength of a vacuum tube, but without making it big and bulkier.

There were two major inventions: First the Audion (Lee Deforest), and then the Transistor. Bot of them were created to amplify the signal of the electricity generated in the vacuum tubes, so that no information would be dropped or lost.

The main reason for this blog post is to question why we don’t credit the Cold War as years of importance, and really the start of the technological boom? In school we just learned that the cold war was a nuclear issue, and that the government was trying to stop communism. No one ever mentioned how the start of computers, and even the internet, were essentially created at that time. Not only that, but we improved our road system, and came up with the GI Bill. Is it possible that people try to forget these things because of the turbulent and troubling past of the United States during that time? Maybe. But I’m glad I finally realized the importance of the Cold War.

In this post, I will be focusing on “The Loudness War” Video.  In the video, a track from the late 1980’s is played in it’s original state in volume. Notice that the drums are the loudest part of the song. This is to give it a punch when you listen to it in the speakers. The video editor then compresses the music to make all of the sounds reach the same point of loudness. At this point, it mught sound better, but the video editor lowers the volume. From this you can see the quality of the music is actually not that good at all, and it doesn’t have the same punch or dynamics as the original. Like the rest of the class, I’m asking “Why is this?” . The music, when listened to at a regular volume, does not sound good at all.

Is it possible that our generation have been ingrained with the idea that louder is better? I believe so. The reason why I think that this is an epidemic is because our generation tends to push limits and defy authority. When I was younger, my mom would constantly yell at how loud my music was, and how I would eventually go deaf. For some reason, I always thought the louder your music, the cooler you were. It gave you a sense of power; a thing we are all searching for. I mean, let’s be honest, how bad ass do you feel driving down the road with your favorite song blasting? It’s almost like nothing can stop you. Its kind of like a sense of power that we yearn for.

It’s possibly that the music industry taps into this illusion of power that we have. It’s a way to sell an idea to the public. “If this music is loud, it makes you feel powerful and happy!” And honestly, who wouldn’t want that?