Take a minute and think about the SOUND of modern Rock & Roll music. Since the late 1970s the standard sound of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal has been the sound of a Gibson Les Paul electric guitar played through a Marshall amplifier. The guitar sound is the predominate sound along with the drums and bass that are generally in the "background".
Listen to the sound of a Gibson Les Paul electric guitar played through a Marshall amplifier and think of how you'd describe it. Would you call it "heavy", "macho", "mean", "loud", "fuzzy" or "powerful'? What is it really? In actuality, without all the emotional coloration you personally bring to it, the sound is "distorted". It is the sound of an electric guitar being played so loud that the amplifier's speaker is being over-driven and the sound is a thick, "fuzzy sounding", buzz with a great amount of sustain or the slow fading out of a sound. Essentially, today's guitar sound is the sound of a broken instrument being played at an excessive volume causing the amplifier to distort and its speaker cone to crack.
The Kink's lead guitarist, Dave Davies, famously cut a triangle in the material of his amp's speaker cone with a razor blade in order to get the sound he made famous on the record You Really Got Me. These days you don't have to physically damage your equipment to get it to sound damaged, you can buy an effects pedal that electronically mimics the sound of a broken amp. What a concept.
Paul McCartney takes this idea even further and has explained how he can sing so forcefully and loud without blowing out his vocal chords. He doesn't really sing any louder at all, what he does is add a little "growl" or distortion to his voice which he can do without actually straining his voice and that gives the listener the impression that he's screaming out the vocals. It's the same thing as making your guitar sound like it being played too loud for the amp and the room when it's actually being played at a very reasonable volume, just with an artificial distortion added.
Why do you think bands like Black Sabbath and ACDC are so loud when you're listening to them on your car stereo right after listening to James Taylor at the exact same volume? It's all a big trick.
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