When I was a teenager in the 2000s I somehow got the opportunity to interview the drummer from Minor Threat for a hardcore zine.
I asked him for his advice for young musicians. He said “you’re not going to listen to this advice because you don’t think it’s cool, and one day you’ll regret it, but always wear earplugs.”
I didn’t listen.
Didn’t think it was cool.
Permanent ear damage by my mid 20s.
@sabbatical I've always had weirdly differential hearing. My left ear is less sensitive than my right, but mostly in the range of human speech. For other frequencies it can perform better than my right. This has been the case since childhood, yet both ears perform well on auditory tests, and I still get irritated by a variety of things that produce high frequency tones that others younger than me can't hear. I have a spectrum analyzer app on my phone to prove that I'm not imagining them!
@alan hah, funny, i kinda have a similar issue with certain sounds really bothering me that arent harsh at all to others around me. could be psychological maybe though — for example if sounds in music are dissonant "in the wrong way" it feels like it physically hurts me (but i love the "right" kind of dissonance.)
@sabbatical @Daojoan I didn't abuse my hearing all that much. Nevertheless I now get to have a low-level 7KHz tone with me at all times. Fortunately I can still ignore it most of the time. When I'm writing about it is not one of those times. arghh.