We've grown accustomed to the widespread, diverse, and even extreme use of distortion in rock, alternative music, and various metal subgenres. Over the past decade, however, distortion as a tool for musical production has seeped into pop music, as well, and now we can hear it almost everywhere.
The amplified, distorted sound might be expected in more relatively niche genres like trap, drum & bass, EDM, hyperpop, funk, and trip-hop. And that's fine—all these are recognized fields for experimentation. But something happened recently within the music industry. Distortion started being used more aggressively, even in mainstream pop songs, and now there are heaps of recordings being released daily where this distinctive saturation is clearly audible.
This isn't about subtle clipping from magnetic tape or audio plugins that emulate such effects. We're talking about blatant, aggressive, in-your-face distortion. Modern music producers seem to be pushing the engine of pop music to its limits. What's particularly intriguing, though, is how much this seems to be resonating with listeners.
This phenomenon demands some reflection. And it seems like there might not just be a cultural reason for it but a scientific, neurobiological explanation as well.
When it comes to the metal scene, there are plenty of clichés. To use a crude example, some people might say, "These are just scary, shaggy guys who crank every knob on their gear to the max while trying to cause ear bleeding." And perhaps long ago, there was some truth to that. The reality is, though, metal musicians are often refined individuals who are deeply knowledgeable about music, and they are experts when it comes to the distortion effect.
Let's turn to the book Global Metal Music and Culture by author Mark Mynett. He is an experienced English producer and sound engineer, a music journalist, and a Senior Lecturer in Music Technology and Production at Huddersfield University. With over 20 years of experience working with metal music, he has delved deep into the specifics of saturation and distortion in heavy genres.
Citing academic research, Mynett explains that associations between distorted sounds and certain emotions begin forming in people during infancy. From a very young age, we hear distortion in our own crying and screaming, as well as in the voices of others. This effect occurs naturally, especially when people strain their vocal cords beyond normal limits.
Several studies suggest that infants start associating distortions in human voice tones with states of high emotional intensity. Initially, these may be situations involving hunger, anxiety, or loneliness. As children grow older, distorted voices become linked with concepts of aggression. Generally speaking, distortion in the voice signals to our brain that something significant is happening—something potentially dangerous, exciting, or emotionally charged.
Undoubtedly, experiences that occur during our earliest years profoundly influence tastes and preferences in adulthood. Scientists hypothesize that distortion in music is unconsciously perceived by people as a marker indicating that maximum attention should be paid to the current sound because it seems to contain something important (if frightening).
Additionally, Mynett discusses the properties of distortion in guitar music. Specifically, he notes that saturation created by specialized guitar effects introduces additional harmonics (overtones) into the sound. On the metal scene, people have been experimenting with distortion for decades and have discovered a paradox: up to a certain level of intensity enhancement and saturation with clearly audible overtones, the effect gives the sound an aura of greater subjective loudness, "importance," "coolness," and so forth. Beyond that point, however, excessive distortion begins to destroy the sound.
In particular, individual note attacks and their tonal height become difficult to distinguish. So, effectively applying distortion isn’t as easy as one might think, even if you’re a "scary, shaggy metalhead."
Producers and sound engineers in the metal scene found that distortion adds the most overtones to the guitar sound in the high-frequency range between 1.5 kHz and 7.5 kHz. Strangely enough, saturating this range creates a sense of real heaviness in metal music. We once thought the key was having enough low frequencies to produce a juicy metallic chung. Apparently, the "iron deposit" lies elsewhere in the sound spectrum.
Do you know what the secret is? The nature of human hearing is such that we can "feel" low frequencies with our body—with our skin and internal organs. Low-frequency sounds travel well through solid mediums (like the ground beneath our feet), which allows us to hear bass from considerable distances.
High-frequency sounds, on the other hand, primarily travel through air, and their energy dissipates quite quickly. Somehow, our brains determine the distance of a sound source based on these high frequencies. If there's sufficient information in the higher frequency range of a musical sound, it appears closer to us.
Of course, producers in other genres, many of which don't feature guitars, eventually caught on too. While the music industry once waged a "loudness war," today it's engaged in a sort of "distortion war." After all, everyone wants their track to sound "in your face" and penetrate you deep down in the bones.
Once producers realized that listeners tend to perceive louder tracks as cooler and requiring of more talent, they began using aggressive compression both during mixing and mastering stages to increase subjective loudness. By around 2005, audio engineers had pushed compression to such extremes that classic tracks by artists like Prodigy that were once considered extreme now sounded lackluster.
Today's listener would find even recordings by metal and grunge bands from the '90s to be quieter. It's no wonder that waves of remastering and reissuing historically successful albums occur in the industry roughly every five years.
Prominent figures in the recording industry have fought against the "Loudness War." For instance, British sound engineer Ian Shepherd (who worked on recordings for artists such as Tricky, Deep Purple, the London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and King Crimson) argued that there was no correlation between the loudness of recordings and their sales success.
He also predicted that mandatory loudness normalization, which all major music streaming platforms now implement, would render the "Loudness War" irrelevant. Legendary sound engineer and mastering engineer Bob Katz forecasted in 2013 that it would end by mid-2014. By the early 2020s, the largest platforms indeed began reducing the volume of all tracks to levels between -16 and -13 LUFS.
Many respected experts, however, appear to have been mistaken. Modern trendsetting music producers could not care less whether the "Loudness War" ended according to someone else's opinion. They continue their battle.
Finally, nearly all new and trendiest electronic-leaning pop music, rap, and similar genres have reached levels close to -8, and sometimes even -6 LUFS. This is essentially the limit to which you can compress the dynamic range without ruining the mix.
So, what do music producers of the 2020s, who still want to sound louder than others, do? They've discovered that they can "increase" the subjectively perceived loudness (or brightness) of music by pumping their mixes full of distortion.
But why does this work? Well, to answer that, we’ll turn to our favorite topics: neurobiology, psychoacoustics, and music psychology.
Neurobiologists haven't extensively studied how humans perceive music, but research over the last thirty years has revealed several patterns.
A study published in Frontiers in Psychology demonstrated that strong emotional responses are associated with activation of the human brain's reward system and the several regions responsible for emotions. These areas are triggered, among other things, in response to perceiving novel sounds.
Skillfully applied distortion works to create novelty in sound, and thus distorted sounds can commonly evoke feelings of excitement and satisfaction.
Essentially, any unexpected musical changes tend to capture the attention of music lovers. Due to their unpredictability, they bring pleasure to listeners.
Another study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, showed that listeners who prefer intense and distorted music usually have a specific type of thinking (cognitive style) and empathic traits.
To simplify it somewhat, it was found that soft, harmonious, and more mainstream music without distortion appeals to more emotional individuals who are prone to strong empathy toward others or animals, and who are adept at communicating with those around them.
Aggressive and distorted subgenres appeal to people with a "systemizing" cognitive style. These are individuals interested in things like reading maps, music theory, grammar rules, bicycle mechanics, medicine, genealogy, train schedules, and even activities like knitting and cooking. Curiously, all these systems follow "if-and-then" rules.
Many people may perceive music with heavy distortion as unpleasant and aggressive. Yet while listening to it, they too may experience the characteristic goosebumps. Many report feeling embarrassed by their physical reaction to tracks they deem "repulsive."
One study revealed that saturated and distortion-heavy mixes can trigger powerful emotional and bodily responses, including activating the fight-or-flight system and creating a sense of losing control.
During another experiment, it was discovered that listening to extreme metal helps people deal with their anger and transform it into positive emotions. In fact, scientists claim that this is a perfectly healthy way to process negativity.
The study found that angry participants experienced reduced levels of hostility, irritability, and stress after listening to aggressive music.
In the music press, we can see many interesting, albeit not necessarily accurate, assessments of the phenomenon of "broken" music laden with distortion.
For instance, some authors argue that aggressive subgenres of electronic music, such as phonk, drill, and trap, attract listeners not just because of their sheer intensity but primarily because of their authenticity. In theory, these styles honestly reflect the social and personal realities of both the artists and their audiences.
Phonk, which has recently gained immense popularity amongst the youth, is characterized not simply by distorted sound, but deeply distorted sound. According to musicologists, its popularity is largely tied to the public's interest in raw, unprocessed sounds that are perceived as honest and direct. Supposedly, young fans of phonk seek a "truthful musical identity" within it.
Drill, originating in Chicago, is also noted for its harshness and heavy use of distortion. This genre is often seen as the voice of marginalized, urban communities. Drill, too, helps people cope with anger and feelings of injustice.
Trap is viewed as a societal response to material inequality and cultural conflicts. This aggressive genre is also therapeutic in a way: it unites listeners with similar views, problems, and experiences, helping them navigate social and economic challenges.
Whether cultural theorists speak the truth or not is hard to tell. Their arguments sound convincing, at least. The findings of psychophysiologists, however, inspire more confidence, as they accurately determined that distorted sound and music emotionally stimulate listeners in a way that says: "You're hearing something very important, exciting, cool, dangerous, and/or captivating right now!" And that feeling, brought on by properly executed distortion, can be strong enough to provoke goosebumps in you, whether you want it or not.
