Ongoing History Daily: Hey! How’s your hearing?

This is a sad fact: As we get older, our hearing changes.  The older we get, the less sensitive our ears become to sound.  But if we torture our ears with loud music and other things at excessive volumes, the sooner our hearing will deteriorate.  That’s pretty obvious, right? 

Now consider this. As we age, the way we perceive sound changes.  Specifically, as we get older, our perception of sound gets sharper.  Not more clear, but more sharp—as in a half tone on the music scale.  This means that to an older person, a pure middle C sounds like a as a C-sharp.

Could this explain why some older people find the music of young people so disagreeable?  Maybe because it is.  It’s slightly out of tune.