Why electronic music got louder

Why did electronic music get so hot, so compressed, so in-your-face? The loudness war was not just a mastering fad, it was a race to stand out on radio, jukeboxes, and later CDs. The twist: louder often won before streaming changed the rules.^[3][9][10]

The core trick was dynamic range compression and limiting: pull down the peaks, push up the average level, and the track feels louder. Vickers says this hypercompression can flatten dynamics, create clutter, and cause listening fatigue.^[2][6][12]

Brickwall limiters changed the game. They can stop anything above the ceiling, which made it easier to chase loud masters in the CD and digital era. Some guides even frame them as the final mastering tool, but warn they can squash a mix if pushed too hard.^[11][14][16]

Streaming flipped the incentive. Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and others now normalize playback, often around -14 LUFS or nearby targets, so an over-loud master usually just gets turned down. That means loudness alone no longer buys you much.^{[18][20][23][25]}