In every Indian Marriage (especially Tamil Marriages) in the evening, there is an event called “Reception” where you have friends and relatives gathering and wishing the newlywed. In the event you have something named appropriately as “Loud Music” which is a performance by a local orchestra singing popular film songs, wishing the newlywed and to entertain the audience – so that there is festivity in the air.
A decade or so back, it used to be primarily classical / Carnatic music that will be played which makes it enjoyable especially by the elders, but nowadays it is only Film Music and “Kutthu” songs. With the advent of portable electronics and powerful speakers, the orchestra sets the sound volume to its maximum. On top of it, imagine these playing in indoors in a closed atmosphere – you have a perfect recipe for a headache. With nuclear families and with people having less time to meet friends/relatives face to face, marriages are the only occasion to meet and catch up on happenings. But songs at these sounds levels ensures no one hears anything, even the person next to him. The whole atmosphere becomes no more enjoyable but leaves you irritated.
I think the only reason the orchestras do this is so that they can get away with any person pretending to be a singer – because at these levels the instruments shadow completely the human voice. In my marriage (2001), we were lucky to have one of the popular Carnatic singers Smt Nithyashree singing – and we enjoy hearing the CD even today. I am not saying everyone should have only classical music, but all I am saying is whatever music you have please have it set to low-medium decibel levels.
Smt Nithyashree at my wedding reception in 2001