Loudest band in the world

The loudest band in the world is a subject of some dispute in musical circles. Many bands have claimed to be the loudest, measuring this in various ways including with decibel meters at concerts and by engineering analysis of the CDs on which their albums are published. The 'Guinness World Records' no longer celebrate "The Loudest Band in the World" for fear of promoting damage to ears.

Sound level may be metered on several ways: Average, maximum level (with the sound level meter set to Fast, Slow, Impulse, og Peak), etc. In addition, there are several decibel scales. Therefore, the decibels on the following list are not necessarily comparable.

Daniel Kreps of Rolling Stone argues that "Whole Lotta Love" established Led Zeppelin's reputation as one of the loudest bands of their time.

Deep Purple held the record and were recognized by The Guinness Book of World Records as the "globe's loudest band" when in a concert at the London Rainbow Theatre their sound reached 117 dB. Three of their audience members were rendered unconscious.

The Who were listed as the "record holder", at 126 dB, measured at a distance of 32 meters from the speakers at a concert at The Valley in London on 31 May 1976.

The heavy metal band Manowar is one claimant of the title of "loudest band in the world", citing a measurement of 129.5 dB in 1994 in Hanover. However, The Guinness Book of World Records listed Manowar as the record holder for the loudest musical performance for an earlier performance in 1984. Guinness does not recognize Manowar's later claim, because it no longer includes a category of loudest band, reportedly because it does not want to encourage hearing damage.

In 1986, an article by Scott Cohen was published in the February issue of Spin entitled "Motörhead is the Loudest Band on Earth". In this article, Cohen mentions an undated concert in which the Cleveland Variety Theater was damaged when the band Motörhead reached a reported decibel level of 130. Cohen reported that this was 10 decibels louder than the record set by The Who.

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