I think that a lot of it has to do with the gear. 40 years ago, this was considered a good PA:





I can remember doing large halls with only a Bogen 100 watt PA head and a couple of small columns. The gear simply couldn't generate chest-pounding levels.

Today, the average bar band is running thousands of watts through their PA alone, not to mention the cumulative volume of high gain bass and guitar amps. Add to that the fact that the average Rock musician has an IQ of 12, minus a few points for drummers. grin

Personally, I don't like levels that exceed 90 dB in the middle of the dance floor. wink



Regards,

Bob