I don't think most people are capable of concentrated listening for hours on end - and chatting in a pub is inevitable. I like the music to be the accompaniment to the evening rather than the absolute focus. Most people are enjoying the music whilst they are chatting anyway. So long as they don't get too loud I think that's fine.

On most occasions, with the notable exception of performances in pubs, we would not dream of talking through the performance and perfectly able to concentrate to get our money's worth.

The problem is I think, that (loud) music in pubs was continuing the (loud) music in discos, which we habitually just shouted over.

It could be a habit we could change and maybe should change?