Philip Morton who was part of a rock group in Portland for more than 20 years also suffers from permanent hearing loss. Kathy peck, a rock musician and co-founder of the 'HEAR' (Hearing Education and Awareness for Rockers) is another victim of high decibel rocking. Today Peck is persuading musicians to decrease the decibel levels and is promoting the use of earplugs and other safety measures to minimize the harmful effect of these music programs. Bill Clinton, the former president and a saxophone player is another example of a musician who developed deafness. Paul Ryan, the professional drummer is also victim of noise pollution in the rock concerts. [Mary Daniels]. The list is much bigger and is a clear warning for aspirants and fans of rock music. While referring to hearing impairment, John Flansburgh, a professional rock musician says it is,"one of the little sacrifices you make for rock." [Geeslin] it is pretty clear that rock music entails the danger of total deafness or a profound decline in the hearing capacity.

Human ear is a highly sensitive and remarkably resilient system, however continuous and careless abuse invariably results in irreparable damage. We have seen some practical cases which confirm that rock music has a debilitating effect on our ears. Today even rock musicians are openly admitting the disability caused by their profession. The sheer number of rock musicians who suffer from hearing impairment is ample proof to the damaging effects of rock music. In the interest of conserving our hearing organs it is advisable to stay away from high decibel music or at least use protective gears which would limit the noise levels. Creating the awareness among rock musicians and rock fans is important in controlling this problem. Music can still be enjoyable without having to recourse to ear splitting and deafening sound levels. The danger of lending a deaf ear to this sound advice is of course obvious.
Bibliography

SHURE, " Straight Talk About Hearing Conservation," Accessed on 24th Oct 2004, http://www.shurenotes.com/issue8/article.asp?flash=true

Mary Daniels, "The ears: your personal sound system," Current Health 2, a Weekly Reader publication; 11/1/1992

Geeslin, Neal, "After Live Aid and Farm Aid, hearing aid may be next for unwary victims of rock" People Weekly, January 23, 1989