When the Music Fades

Collins, Townshend, Clapton, Beethoven. What do these names have in common? Music icons—that they are.

They also are musicians who have publicly acknowledged their hearing loss and its impact on their musicianship. And these famous names are certainly not alone.

The Hearing Health Foundation estimates that professional musicians are four times more likely to develop noise-induced hearing loss and 57 percent more likely to develop tinnitus.

As devastating as losing one’s hearing must be to anyone, the magnitude of the devastation is probably amplified many times over for a professional musician.

One wonders how the sound of music must change for a musician as hearing loss takes grip and disrupts the chords core to a musician’s life and livelihood. This precisely is the focus of a new movie, The Sound of Metal, now streaming on Amazon and included in a Prime membership.

The sound design of the movie is winning some acclaim as Nicolas Becker and Abraham Marder have attempted to simulate the lead character’s hearing loss and allow the audience to experience the altered auditory world of a musician losing his hearing. It’s worth a listen.