Popular music has been getting louder in the last 20 years. What happens is better explained by a Youtube video but the result of this loudness has been a loss of dynamics in music. Where once the drums could be felt punching into a track, now they will be compressed into the same frequency band as every other instrument on the song, resulting in a uniform sound wave that is missing dynamic range (the difference between quiet and loud parts). All of these frequencies are then made louder so the entire track fills, up the range of frequencies heard by the human ear. There can be no such thing as quiet if everything is loud.

Take LMFAO’s simple and annoying chart hit Party Rock Anthem (preferably on a stereo). You will hear the brick-walled beats that engulf the track from the start. When the bass comes into the song, one minute in, it should boom but it is compressed so much and competing to be heard in the same frequency range as the beat and synth frequencies that it doesn’t make much of an impact. Compare it to Adele’s Rolling In The Deep, a song which gets louder and adds instruments to the mix as it progresses. There’s a space between the instruments that is more pleasing to ears.

But it’s not just radio-friendly music that is responsible for the Loudness War. Metallica’s 2008 CD album Death Magnetic was widely criticised for its over-compression which resulted in a distortion on even the best listening equipment. All the same, compression and the limiting of frequencies has become a technique onto itself. One of 2010′s best new bands Sleigh Bells used it to make the tracks on their debut album Treats “red-hot,” that means the songs are louder than anything else you could possibly own, resulting in a gut-punching physicality to the recording.

There are some signs that the Loudness War is being won by people who value their ear drums. Sleigh Bells’ Derek Miller recently denounced his own technique in an interview with The Atlantic on the Loudness War apologising with “I didn’t really know what I was doing.” Miller promises that the band’s second album will not feature this technique.

It was the CD that brought The Loudness War upon us. Its greater dynamic range than vinyl or cassette was misused to make things louder rather than dynamic. But CDs are a dying format and digital music allows us to redress the balance somewhat. We will soon be using digital technology and complex algorithms in our iPods and media players to deal with the Loudness War more effectively. It may even become a legal requirement. iTunes already has a “Soundcheck” feature that keeps all songs played at the same level. It’s a start. Awareness is key. Technology can make music sound better not just louder.

The time I spent pounding pavement with waning ankles was worth it. It was obvious that the mostly free blogger-curated day and late night parties are where it was at with many more unknown bands waiting to be discovered over the bands who either a) already have some kind of label deal or b) don’t really need a festival like CMJ to jump up the awareness ladder. I’m looking at you – The XX and The Temper Trap.

It’s with thanks to the blogs, music sites and their diligent web posts that I’m now enthused about Florida’s Surfer Blood who played the After The Jump Party, a consortium of 20 music bloggers who come together to put on events. Surfer Blood played a total of 12 sets during the week and their swooping surf rock with tender hooks got the attention of many. The band are not to be confused with Surf City, an equally enthralling prospect from New Zealand who play melodic indie-rock and who also rocked the festival. Their song Dickshakers Union is a good example of their sound (as well as being generally awesome).

Brooklyn’s Sleigh Bells were on the receiving end of much blog buzz with NYC blogger Sheena Beaston calling the boy/girl duo “the hottest thing to come out of CMJ”. It’s easy to see why. As well as putting on a fantastic show, their unique brand of electro-rock is the perfect dance enabler, coming across at times, like the Chemical Brothers played by a garage rock band.

Many other acts benefited from online post-show enthusiasm and the Twitter buzzometer so expect to hear more from this lot over the course of the next year…

Timber Timbre – a bluesy Toronto band who sound similar to M. Ward, Suckers – a harmony-heavy frizzled psychedelic outfit with a David Byrne-esque singer, Long Beach noisy punky psych rockers Crystal Antlers who also won the prize for most engaging percussionist, Free Energy – a Philly band with Thin Lizzy soundalike tendencies and local Brooklyn boys Bear Hands who specialise in experimental indie rock.