Jennifer Fishburne frequented concerts in the ’90s, from Lollapalooza to Woodstock ’99, and she kept an unexpected — and unwanted — souvenir from all of them.
The 49-year-old man suffers from tinnitus, or “ringing in the ears,” due to regularly going to concerts.
Fishburne, a nurse from Pennsylvania whose first concert was Heart at age 9, told The Post, “Now that I’m older, I don’t need to go into the pit anymore.” “But when you were younger, you always wanted to be at the front, in front of the speakers and everything.”
On his worst days he never bothered to wear earplugs – at the time, they were social suicide.
“Earplugs at the time were neon orange that were foamy,” recalled Fishburne, who still stops to wear earplugs despite frequent shows. “No one wants to be seen with people in your ears.”
However, times have changed.
Now their 23-year-old music-loving daughter, Cass Adams, is joining a whole new breed of concert goers who care about their hearing — and making good earplugs, too.
“She definitely tells me about all her concert days and how she still has damage to her hearing,” the longtime migraine-suffering Philadelphia hair stylist told The Post about Fishburne’s auditory fate. told, adding that she herself is “a person who loves camping.” Get out, barricade, stay very close.”
So, further Charli XCX and Troye Sivan’s Sweat Tour Last month – to reduce the impact of the thumping bass and screaming crowd on her ears – Adams purchased a pair of earplugs, which she said, “made such a huge difference.”
She’s part of a growing group of Gen Zers and young millennials who are making once-useless devices not only normal, but the essential accessory of the year.
Much of this stems from observing the effects of loud noise on our parents’ and our own ears.
And looking out for the impressionable, hyper-online generation of your daughter’s age, they aren’t using your average clinical and clunky foam earplugs.
Until recently, Roy Kiefer thought earplugs were, frankly, “ugly.” She herself could never imagine using the “not a good thing” item — but now, after watching her mother’s hearing decline, the 28-year-old doesn’t leave the house without them.
“I was embarrassed because I thought it might be kind of dirty,” Brooklyn-based Kiefer, who works as a product designer and wedding photographer, told The Post.
,[But] “Listening to me is more important than how other people perceive me.”
Some? clever creator have created DIY jewelry to hold her earplugs, and while Kiefer has made her own earrings to wear, dozens of seller on etsy Sell them too.
balanense A pair of silver “ball ear jewels” sell for $450and brands like Horoscope — which saw a massive 1,191% increase in sales from 2020 to 2023 — at a time when earplugs weren’t “cool,” designed metal earplugs to resemble jewelry to cater to a younger, trendier audience.
“There was a taboo around wearing ear protection — like, why would you go out, wear clothes and put these ugly plugs or Christmas trees in your ears?” Loop CEO Maarten Bodevs told The Post.
He compared the company’s stylish invention to the plight of sunglasses – once seen as a diagnostic tool to protect the eyes from the sun, but now seen as an essential tool .
Bodeaves said that prominent personalities have had an impact on the general public.
Last month, music producer and singer Jack Antonoff, 40, Turns out he wears earplugs In most noisy environments — from airplanes to concerts and even when he sleeps — fans noticed he wore them to the VMAs.
Miracle-Ear audiologist Dr. Victoria Zambrano told The Post, “The stigma with hearing loss has always been that it’s a problem that older people experience and no one wants to look older than they are ”
But the deafening sounds have become too much for people like Camila Savinan, 27, who recently started wearing earplugs after experiencing pain and ringing after concerts.
“Now everyone is wearing them,” she said, noting that they have less “stigma.”
Sévinen’s friends have been wearing them “for quite some time”, and New Yorker Lily Kim says the “large majority” of her circle also wear earplugs.
“There is a wide range of types of earplugs that everyone wears,” the 27-year-old woman, who keeps her earplugs on her keyring, told The Post.
“Some of them have invested in good ones, like custom fit ones that fit specifically to your ear.”
Zambrano warned that prolonged exposure to loud noises can cause significant – and irreparable – damage to the ears and hearing ability, which results from prolonged nerve stimulation. Hallmark Symptoms include Mental and physical fatigue, headache and tinnitus.
“We can be exposed to 85 decibels of noise for an eight-hour period where it really won’t cause any harm,” Zambrano said.
“But once decibel levels increase by five decibels after that point, our exposure to sound should be limited by half.”
Loud music or sound at most concerts and venues averages around 110 dB to 120 dB – meaning those environments should only be tolerated for 15 to 30 minutes without earplugs without risk of damage.
“I know that sometimes, like with scenery, you want to be close to the stage so you can see everything, but usually that means you’re right next to the speakers,” Stephanie Rodriguez, 27—NYC a longtime production manager based in Washington, D.C. told The Post.
She uses traditional foam earplugs in clubs and concerts after seeing how loud noises damaged the hearing of her father, who “used to be in the New York music scene” as a professional dancer. and later “became partially deaf in one ear.”
,To me, that was always important,” Rodriguez said, “because I’m not going to have my ears busted forever just to have a fun night at a concert.”
