A Little Sweet And Simple Numbing Me

There was always two things I hated about going out to most bars; the people who smoked, and the unnecessarily loud music. Fortunately, since it became illegal to smoke indoors a few years back, that part of the problem has been solved; however, the blaring music form The Church of Bad Taste still remains.

I've often wondered why most bars play their music so loud; does the general consensus of bar patrons actually prefer this type of audio assault atmosphere? Are people actually requesting the music be at such a high volume so they can't hear their own depressing thoughts? Maybe most bar owners do it for the hell of it, just to be a bunch of dicks.

Well, there might actually be a reason behind it. According to a study performed by psychologist Dr. Lorenzo Stafford at the University of Portsmouth in the UK, loud music makes people want to drink more alcohol and at a faster rate.

The study focused on how music alters the taste of alcohol in 80 subjects between the ages of 18 and 28, which I guess is the age group that consumes the most alcohol/goes out most often to bars, at least in the UK that is. Drinks were then rated on their level of bitterness or sweetness, by the subjects, while music was played in the background at varying volume levels.

The conclusion was that the louder the music, the more the participants found their drinks to taste sweeter, and since people prefer sweetness over bitterness, this made them want to drink more alcohol.

It's not the most scientific study, in fact it's hardly scientific, but there just might be some actual truth to it. I wouldn't be surprised if most bar owners recognize that there is indeed some uncanny type of correlation between their loud music and the amount of alcohol they sell and ingeniously exploit that connection in order to make a hefty profit. It's all a conspiracy, I say!

And since louder music supposedly begets more drinking, and more drinking always leads to poor judgment, it would then make sense why someone would think it to be a good idea to play $7 worth of Hoobastank on the jukebox. 


Source: AV Club