If you follow the world of opera, there's been a bit of a ruckus recently about certain opera companies using amplification -- anathema to the old guard opera afficianadoes who believe opera should be totally unamplified. But the opera companies find that their audiences demand amplified music, because, they say, the Baby Boom generation is suffering hearing loss as they grow older, because Baby Boomers listened to so much over-amplified music as young adults. In reply, the old guard opera buffs claim that amplification will tempt singers to skimp on voice training and projection, becoming dependent on amplification (a claim that has a ring of truth to it). Most observers, however, agree that amplification will continue to spread in the world of opera. Audiences demand it, and opera companies that don't use amplification are seeing decreasing ticket sales. Want to bet that soon there will be "acoustic opera companies"? We'll see ads for "La Traviata Unplugged"!!

So my $.02 worth is this: like the opera world, we're stuck with amplified music now, because more people are suffering hearing loss now, because they've listened to too much over-amplified music. Sigh.