Turning Up the Music Makes You Down Drinks

Loud music in bars may cause patrons to talk less, drink more, study shows.

ByABC News
July 18, 2008, 1:40 PM

July 18, 2008 — -- Bar owners may be blasting loud music not just because they think it's cool. It turns out the louder the music, the lighter patron's pockets are at the end of the night, according to the results of a new study in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

Professors in western France struck a deal with two local bars to experiment on young men. The bar owners agreed to let the scientists control the volume for two nights and plant undercover patrons to document the drinking habits of 40 men, age 18 to 25.

With louder music, the young men drank a beer three minutes faster, ordered an extra drink and took slightly more gulps. The French scientists gave two, highly researched hypotheses as to why.

First, the scientists theorized that loud music increased "arousal" and, in this hyper state, the men drank more. Second, the scientists theorized that the young men couldn't hear themselves over the music and so, instead of talking, they drank more.

Whichever reason is true, the French researchers suggested something should be done about loud music to help combat widespread alcohol abuse and alcohol-related deaths, which account for 70,000 deaths a year in France, or about 13 percent of total deaths.

"Is loud music a stimulant? Absolutely. That's why rock music is loud," said Gene Bowen, a former tour manager for a variety of artists and founder of Road Recovery, a nonprofit program designed to help young people stay sober through collaboration with musicians.

"People want to listen to music that affects them," Bowen said. "But does it affect them to make them want to put substances in their system? That's debatable."

Bowen may be right on track, according to Harris B. Stratyner, regional vice president for Caron's New York Recovery Center and a clinical associate professor at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.

"We know certain things about arousal states," said Stratyner, who added that sound, lights and other sensory inputs can arouse the mind and body to the point of changing behavior.