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Those pieces with the biggest range seem to be mostly in the western classical orchestral tradition. In a quite concert hall the base noise level might be 60 db and the peaks of the performance might be 110 db for brief moments. So the range of the piece might be 40 db (the orchestra has to play louder than the ambient sound to be heard at all). Recently some pieces have gotten so loud that EU officials have stepped in since they are in violation of hearing protection regulations.
Rock concerts have a much smaller dynamic range, perhaps between 10-20 db. Recorded music and broadcast music is artificially compressed so that it never gets as soft as the original. This is done so that the music can "punch through" the surrounding noise especially on radio where the loud stations tend to attract more listeners and for those driving in autos.
When full range CD's were first released people complained because if they made them loud enough to hear the quiet parts then they were too loud at the climaxes. Some players and receivers now have options to compress the sound for late night listening.
The rise of continually loud pop music and the use of headphones for listening has led to widespread hearing loss especially among young people. This is now a major public health issue, but doesn't get much attention. Warnings on headphones and MP3 players don't change behavior.
Trying to find a quite place in the modern world is difficult and I think many people are unable to cope with this situation, they just need to be surrounded by sound and activity. Perhaps the rise of email, IM and texting indicates that people are afraid to even be alone with their thoughts...
[As I'm writing this the gardening crew up the street is using a variety of gas powered lawn equipment and shattering the quiet of the morning. The situation had gotten so bad that my village put a ban in against gas blowers from November to April. Rakes are a thing of the past.] Policies not Politics ---- Daily Landscape
yes! though I suppose horses were loud prior to cars, and people in aggregate are loud regardless--
Still, cars (and buses) are a constant background hum--the sound of modern life in the West, I suppose. So people get away from it all in the country, in quiet spots. I found a great quote about this, relating to 4'33:
And here it can be demonstrated that the much poeticized silences with which the country restores nerves shaken by city life are made up of an infinity of noises, and that these noises have their own timbres, their own rhythms, and a scale that is very delicately enharmonic in its pitches. It has been neither said nor proven that these noises are not a very important part (or in many cases the most important part) of the emotions that accompany the beauty of certain panoramas, the smile of certain countrysides!
But let us leave nature and the country (which would be a tomb without noises) and enter a noisy modern city. Here, with machines, life has created the most immense, the most varied sources of noise. But if the noises of the country are few, small, and pleasing, then those of the city ... Oh! To have to listen to noises from dawn to dusk, eternal noise!
http://solomonsmusic.net/4min33se.htm
Not only that but your neural networks are chattering away all the time even where there is no stimulus. It's what neurons do when they're at home. So when 'nothing' is happening, the low-level neural chatter comes into consciousness. ie the Noise becomes Signal.
One can study this effect by lying in a bath of body temperature water in a totally black bathroom when noone else is in the house. It is not the isolation tank of Dr John Lilley or Michael Jacksob, but it will be effectively spooky. You can't be me, I'm taken
Always check you've put your light bulbs in properly or it will come back to haunt you Interviewer: What do you believe is behind this recent increase in terrorist bombings? Helpmann: Bad sportsmanship
