The short version
- Among matched groups of 875 fans each, 70% of electronic dance music regulars reported using hearing protection at events, compared with 59% of fans of other genres.
- Dance-music fans were twice as likely to choose high-fidelity earplugs, which lower volume evenly, and more often learned about them from friends or social media.
- The survey recruited volunteers from online fan forums and relied on self-report, so it shows a difference in habits and not a difference in hearing.
The loudest rooms in live music may have the most careful listeners. A survey led by the Keck School of Medicine of USC, published in The Laryngoscope in 2025 and circulating in the music press during October’s National Protect Your Hearing Month, asked about 2,000 concertgoers what they put in their ears. After matching the two groups on background, 875 fans who mostly attend electronic dance music events were compared with 875 who mostly attend other genres. Hearing protection was used by 70.47% of the first group and 59.40% of the second, and “often or always” by 48.49% against 29.56%.
The type differed too. High-fidelity earplugs, which turn the volume down evenly across pitches, were the choice of 64.52% of the dance-music group and 31.45% of the rest. Dance-music fans more often found their earplugs through social media or a friend. Other fans more often said protection was unnecessary or spoiled the music. The dance-music group also had more to protect against: 60.73% stayed at events three hours or longer, against 17.06%, and 62.54% had experienced ringing ears after a show, against 49.18%.
The respondents were volunteers recruited through Reddit and Facebook fan groups between November 2022 and February 2023, about 60% of them men, with an average age under 29. Nobody’s hearing was tested. People who already worry about their ears are the likeliest to answer such a survey.
In a 2022 CDC survey of 4,514 US adults, 61.2% said they would wear hearing protection at a venue if it were handed to them.
